Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of and to collect the basic informations of musculoskeletal diseases of upper extremities in manufacturing and telecommunication companies. The subjects were 213 workers, consisted Of 98 manufacturing workers and 115 telephoBfi operators. The musculoskeletal ,symptom survey, Job safety analysis (JSA), and medical examinations including neurologic, and'nerve.cqnduction velocity (NCV) test were conducted.: All workers were women in company A, while the other composed of 68(69.4%) men and 30(30.6%) women. The results were as follows: 1. The rates of self-reporting symptoms in each company were 85.2% at the neck, 81.1% at the shoulder joint, 73.0% at the wrist joint and 34.8% at the elbow joint in company A, while 56.1% at the shoulder joint, 51.2% at the neck and 23.5% at the elbow joint in company B in order. 2. No relationship was observed between the work duration and symptom rate in company A, but the highest symptom rate was observed at the neck in 10-19 year work duration group, at the shoulder, elbow and wrist joint in 5-9 year work duration group in company B. 3. Over the 22.8% of total workers in this study having symptoms got medical treatment at the medical clinics or drug stores, but there was no statistical difference between both companies. 4. In company A, 16(13.9%) workers were classified as D category, 12(10.4%) workers as C category and 2(1.7%) workers as R category among 115 workers. And D category was 10(10.2%), C category 31(31.6%) and R category 4(4.0%) among 98 workers in company B. D category means disease category needed futher treatment, C category means disease category needed no treatment and R category means recheck category, needed futher evaluation. 5. The types of musculoskeletal disorders including D, C, and R category were 46 cases(D 13, C 30, R 3) of tension neck .syndrome (TNS), 16 cases (D 3, C 8, R 5) of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), 5 cases of De Quervain's disease, 3 cases of lateral epicondylitis, 3 cases of bicipital tendinitis, 3 cases of rotator cuff tendinitis, 2 cases of medical epicondylitis, and 5 cases of cervical disc syndrome. 6. In company A, the total cases of 11 TNS, 8 CTS, 3 De Quervain's disease, 3 lateral epicondylitis, 3 rotator cuff tendinitis and 1 cervical disc syndrome were diagnosed and so were total cases of 35 TNS, 8 CTS and 4 cervical disc syndrome in company B. 7. By stepwise multiple regression analysis with dichotomization of musculoskeletal disease, the following odds ratios were significantly high (p<0.05)-sex (2.707) and age(l.926).

• Keywords: Cumulative trauma disorder;Musculoskeletal disease of upper extremities;Job safety analysis