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Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among farmers: A systematic review
Author(s) -
Osborne Aoife,
Blake Catherine,
Fullen Brona M.,
Meredith David,
Phelan James,
McNamara John,
Cunningham Caitriona
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.21033
Subject(s) - medicine , cinahl , context (archaeology) , cochrane library , scopus , web of science , physical therapy , confidence interval , medline , meta analysis , musculoskeletal disorder , systematic review , prevalence , low back pain , epidemiology , demography , environmental health , alternative medicine , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , psychological intervention , pathology , psychiatry , paleontology , political science , law , biology , sociology
Objective To determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among farmers and to establish the most common regional MSDs reported. Methods Comprehensive electronic searches of Pubmed, Web of Science, CINAHL, SCOPUS, EMBASE, Agris Database, and Cochrane Library were carried out using keywords for MSDs and farmers. Pooled estimates of prevalence with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for overall MSD prevalence and the most common regional MSDs reported. Results Twenty‐four studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were incorporated into this review. From these studies, life‐time prevalence of any form of MSD among farmers was 90.6% while 1‐year MSD prevalence was 76.9% (95% CI 69.8–82.7). The majority of studies focused on spinal MSDs with low back pain (LBP) the most frequently investigated. Life‐time LBP prevalence was 75% (95% CI 67–81.5) while 1‐year LBP prevalence was 47.8% (95% CI 40.2–55.5). The next most common regional MSDs reported were upper (range 3.6–71.4%) and lower extremities (range 10.4–41%). Conclusions The systematic review identified the prevalence of MSDs by body region in farmers and established that LBP was the most common MSD, followed by upper and then lower extremity MSDs. Reported trends suggest that the prevalence of MSDs in farmers is greater than in non‐farmer populations. Case‐definition uniformity among MSD researchers is warranted. More studies are needed regarding upper and lower extremity MSDs, gender, workplace, and task context of MSDs. Am. J. Ind. Med. 55:143–158, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.