Results of a survey on the awareness and severity assessment of upper-limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders among female bank tellers in Korea

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported musculoskeletal symptoms and related factors among VDT operators working in banks. The subjects were 950 female bank tellers. This study was the first nation-wide survey on WMSDs carried out to specify the prevalence of WMSDs and to identify demographic and task-related factors associated with work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) symptoms. The resulting prevalence rates were much higher than similar studies conducted in other countries, in the more than severe' category for the Likert scale, subjects reported 51.4% for the shoulder, 38.3% for the lower back, 38.3% for the neck, 31.2% fbr the upper back, 21.7% for the wrist, and 13.6% for the fingers. The demographic characteristics affecting the WMSD symptoms were marital status, number of children and daily time spent on housework. Task-related factors affecting the symptoms were VDT working experience daily working time, daily VDT use, VDT use time without rest, daily workload, and the amount of rest breaks. Multiple logistics regression showed that daily working time, daily VDT use time, and VDT working experience were significant variables accounting for the symptoms.