Musculoskeletal Disorders: Prevalent predicaments among carpenters of West Bengal, India

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Carpentry and related jobs are the major occupations for a large number of people in the rural and urban areas of India which is mainly unorganized. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Carpentry work is unorganized informal sectors, particularly in developed countries such as India, and there is a lack of data on musculoskeletal disorders and the issues are being undermined nowadays, so we intend to study and evaluate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among carpenters, analyzing major causes behind such predicaments with a special emphasis on working posture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For the present study, 148 male carpenters aged between 20-60 years were randomly taken from different wooden furniture manufacturing units in West Bengal, India, and 148 referent subjects from different working sectors with similar socioeconomic status who have been categorized depending upon their experience. Socio-demographic features along with physical measures, physiological status, working posture, and discomfort at different body parts were evaluated following standard protocol. RESULTS: Based on the observations, it was found that most of the carpenters were suffering from work-related health predicaments, mainly musculoskeletal problems due to awkward working posture. Some of the working postures adopted by carpenters were identified as very strenuous. They complain about pain during working hours and also during the rest period. It was observed that the head, neck, shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist, upper back, lower back, waist, leg, knee, and ankle were majorly affected areas due to their repetitive nature of work with awkward posture. Body part discomfort rating showed that the lower back was mostly stressed and the elbow and leg were least. It was also found that their working place and their working environment and unergonomic tools make work more strenuous. CONCLUSION: So, some ergonomic interventions are required to improve the quality of life of the carpenter work, and scheduled rest-pause may enable the workers to recover from strain.