Relationship between Job Stress and Ergonomic Behavior with Musculoskeletal Disorders in an Auto-part Production Company

Background & Aims of the Study: Worker’s behaviors, uncontrolled job stress, psycho- social factors and non-ergonomic principles, lead to risk of musculoskeletal disorders. This rsearch was done conducted to analyze relationship these factors in an auto-parts production company in Qom province, Iran in 2015. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional one conducted on all workers (n=113). To measure the ergonomic behavior, behavioral sampling checklist was used. Researcher-made demographic and Nordic questionnaire beside valid HSE job stress questionnaire were used. Data analysis was done with SPSS V20 using Poisson regression method. Results:: Age’s average of studied workers was 26.76±4.6 and work history was 3.49±3.36 years. Eighty nine ones (%66.9) experienced at least musculoskeletal pain at one part of their body. Highest rate of pain was reported in low back pain (58.42%). Among 1792 observed behavior, 49.61% of behaviors were ergonomic. The manual handling behavior with 76.19% as the rate was the worst. Mean (±SD) of occupational stress score was measured 95.72 (±14.25). According to Poisson regression musculoskeletal disorders among men were significantly less than women (38.3%) (P=0.04). With one unit, increasing in ergonomic behavior, disorders were decreased 3.35 times (P <0.001). Also, accompanied with increasing the demand score, we would be experienced a 50% reduction in musculoskeletal disorders. Conclusion: Based on our finding, studied workers were in high degree risk of job stress. In addition, stress and behavior were correlated with musculoskeletal disorders prevalence.