Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders in Steel Industry Workers and its Association with RULA’s Method Results

Aim:Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are the main cause of occupational disorders and disabilities in the developing countries. The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence of the MSDs in steel Industryworkers using Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ), and its relationship with the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) results. Instruments & Methods: The present research was a descriptive-analytic study conducted on the Iranian steel industry in 2018. A total of 17 workstations were randomly selected and NMQ was used to explore the prevalence of the symptoms of Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). Afterwards, the workers’ postures were assessed via RULA. Finally, the results were analyzed in SPSS 22 through the chi-square test, independent t-test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) method.Findings:This study showed the significant relationship between the results from the Nordic assessment of the back, knee, and neck within the past 12 months and profession type (p0.05).Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that in order to considerably reduce the musculoskeletal disorders in the steel industry workers, immediate measures must be taken to correct the back and neck postures especially in the scrap shear operators, welders, ingot shear operators, electrical technician, tower operator, and guillotine operators