Work-related musculoskeletal symptoms and its relationship with the quality of life of bank employees' in the Middle West of Santa Catarina, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of the present study was estimate the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal symptoms and their relationship with the quality of life of bank employees in the Middle West of Santa Catalina. A cross sectional study was carried out involving all bank workers (N = 263) of the 13 cities of the Middle West region of Santa Catalina, Brazil. Questionnaires regarding socio-demographic and work-related issues, and referring to musculoskeletal symptoms were applied. For questions regarding quality of life, the questionnaire WHOQOL-Bref was used. The report on musculoskeletal symptoms was the dependent variable. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to test the association between the study variables. The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms was 72.8%. Bank workers with no alternate position of work had a 20% [RP 1.20 (CI95% 1.02-1.41)] (p = 0.029) higher prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms compared with their colleagues who worked in alternate positions. Lack of rests in the daily work was associated with the occurrence of musculoskeletal symptoms, with a 31% [RP 1.31 (IC95% 1.06-1.61)] (p = 0.011) higher prevalence of symptoms compared to bank workers that had pause. The correlation study between the number of musculoskeletal symptoms and aspects of quality of life showed negative weak correlations in the psychological, social and environmental domains. Only the physical domain showed moderate negative correlation (R = -0.411) (p < 0.001). It was concluded that the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among the bank employees of the region was high and presented a negative correlation with quality of life.