Ergonomic investigations with respect to the development of occupational stresses and musculoskeletal disorders among the insurance office employees

Abstract

Insurance is prominent sector in the rapid growth of banking and real estate business with 12.9% contribution in India s gross domestic product (GDP). Insurance sector is providing direct employment to more than 2.5 lakhs population in the Life Insurance Corporation of India only. Increase in Indian population has raised the work load on employees working in this sector and thereby results into health hazards especially occupational stress and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). These occupational hazards may be influenced by demographic, occupational, physical and psychosocial factors of the insurance office employees. Moreover, this issue is still unexplored in national as well as international literature of the insurance sector. This becomes a key issue of investigation of occupational stress and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among insurance office employees. Therefore, the present study is an attempt to investigate the risk factors affecting the occupational stress and musculoskeletal disorders among Indian insurance office employees. newlineThe present exploratory study iscarried out among 400 insurance office employees working in Punjab region by using a self administrated questionnaire. The questionnaire intends to collect the information pertaining to demographic, occupational, physical, and psychosocial factors. The musculoskeletal discomfort is assessed by using Cornell University Musculoskeletal Disorder Questionnaire (CMDQ). Work posture is assessed through rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) score using Ergo-Master version 4.5. In addition, data is statistically analysed using binary logistic regression, multiple linear regression, and t-test in statistical software SPSS version 22.0. newlineThe demographic data reveals that the participants had mean age 39.9+10 years, body mass index (BMI) 26.36+1.3 kg/m2 with at least one year of work experience. The prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal symptoms is prominentin neck (57.2%) followed by shoulders (38.5%), upper back (28.5%), and lower back (46.2