Assessment of Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorder, health seeking behavior and associated factors among taxi drivers in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia
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Date
2019-10
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background: Musculoskeletal disorders are widespread in many countries around the world.
Transport workers have been found to be at high risk of developing work related musculoskeletal
disorders (WRMSDs).
Objective:The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders,
health seeking behavior and associated factors among Taxi drivers in Addis Ababa.
Methods and Materials: Community based cross sectional design was under taken among taxi
drivers in Addis Ababa using Nordic MSD questionnaire. Then the data was collected through
face to face interview by 4 data collectors. The collected data was checked for its completeness
and entered in to Epi info7 then exported to SPSS ver. 21, cleaned and both descriptive and
logistic regression analysis were done.
Results: From the total of study subjects, 371participants were involved in this study with 95.9%
of response rate. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorder among taxi drivers in Addis Ababa
during the last 12 months and the last seven days were 55% and 29% respectively. The low back
pain and shoulder were the most pain sites in the past 12 months d by accounting 53.6% and
31% respectively. Majority of study participants were not interested to take early treatment of
MSD until it gets worse. The identified risk factors include, Driving Experiences >10yrs
[AOR:3.01,95%C.I. (2.08, 28.31)], bending/twisting frequently[AOR:1.673,95%C.I. (1.52,
8.53)], sitting for a longer time[AOR:2.79,95%C.I. (2.30, 9.03)], Not comfortable Seat design of
taxi [AOR:2.45,95%C.I.(2.18,17.10)], Not performing regular physical
exercises[AOR:2.17,95%C.I. (2.9, 11.68)].
Conclusion and recommendation:This study found a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain
among taxi drivers with low back the most common site of the pain. The longer the years of
driving experience the greater the chances of developing musculoskeletal disorder. Majority of
them were not interested to take early treatment of MSD. Therefore, these findings call for
awareness creation training for drivers on how to avoid or reduce the risk factors such as
frequent bending/twisting, prolonged sitting, seat design of taxi and physical exercises.
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Keywords
Musculoskeletal disorder, taxi, drivers, Addis Ababa.