Musculoskeletal pain and its correlates among secondary school female teachers in Aljouf region, Saudi Arabia

Background and objectives Musculoskeletal pain is considered to be one of the most prevalent occupational health problems in the working environment. School teachers are at significant risk of developing this pain. The objective of this study is to assess musculoskeletal pain and its correlates among secondary school female teachers in Aljouf region, Saudi Arabia. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 254 secondary school female teachers in Aljouf region, Saudi Arabia. A structured, self-administered questionnaire was utilized in the present study to collect the required data. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS program, version 21. Results The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among secondary school female teachers in Aljouf region, Saudi Arabia was 68.50%. The main sites of musculoskeletal pain were low back (68.4%), knee (58.6%), shoulder (47.7%), neck (45.4%), elbow (23.6%), and wrist (14.4%). Nearly 70% of the teachers had musculoskeletal pain in various sites. Days of absenteeism per month because of musculoskeletal pain were one to five days among 89.7% of the teachers. Regarding the severity of musculoskeletal pain, 64.4% had non-disabling pain and 35.6% had disabling pain. Factors that showed a significant relationship with disabling musculoskeletal pain were age (p = 0.013), marital status (p = 0.043), practicing exercise (p = 0.008), years of teaching (p = 0.020), daily hours of working (p = 0.039), number of classes per week (p = 0.013), and comfortableness of school furniture (p = 0.009). Logistic regression analysis showed that the significant predictors of disabling musculoskeletal pain were age more than 40 years [odds ratio (OR): 2.08; confidence interval (CI): 1.16-3.71], not practicing exercise (OR: 3.19; CI: 1.29-7.88), more than ten years of teaching (OR: 2.07; CI: 1.12-3.84), and non-comfortableness of school furniture (OR: 2.16; CI: 1.21-3.88). Conclusion Secondary school female teachers showed a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in most anatomic sites, such as low back, knee, shoulder, neck, elbow, and wrist. Significant predictors of disabling musculoskeletal pain were age more than 40 years, not practicing exercise, more than ten years of teaching, and non-comfortableness of school furniture.