Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders amongst Office-Based Civil Servants in Rivers State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to investigate Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WRMDs) among
office-based civil servants in selected ministries (Ministry of Education and Health) –Min-C and local
government areas (Ikwerre and Obio/Akpor) LGA-C of Rivers State using 200 office-based civil
servants as the study population. A lykert model response questionnaire was used as the instrument
of primary data collection to investigate prevalence of WRMDs among the study population. The data
obtained were analyzed using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (w). The w-values for general
office ergonomic awareness were 0.271 (27.1%) for LGA-C and 0.739 (73.9%) for Min-C while that of
workstation ergonomics awareness were 0.297(29.7%) and 0.323(32.3%) for LGA-C and Min-C,
respectively. When Workstation Ergonomic Practice was considered the w-values for LGA-C were
0.771 (77.1%) and 0.9896 (99%) for Min-C while that of Musculoskeletal Disorder/Pain complaints
were 0.995 (99.5%) for LGA-C and 0.992 (99.2%) for Min-C. These values suggest that there is low
level of ergonomics awareness and practice, and high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders/pains
among the study population. The study also indicates that the most affected body regions were waist,
back, and neck.