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Physical and psychosocial factors associated with wrist or hand pain among Australian hospital-based nurses
  1. Inoka K Surawera1,2,
  2. Victor C W Hoe1,3,
  3. Helen L Kelsall1,
  4. Donna M Urquhart1,
  5. Malcolm R Sim1
  1. 1Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, The Alfred Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2Environmental and Occupational Health Unit, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka
  3. 3Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, UM, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Victor C W Hoe, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, UM, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; drvictorhoe{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objective To assess the personal, physical and psychosocial factors associated with wrist or hand pain in Australian hospital-based nurses.

Methods Wrist or hand pain, associated disability and sickness absence, demographic, occupational, physical, psychosocial and personal factors among nurses working for three hospitals in Melbourne, Australia, were assessed in a cross-sectional study. Factors associated with wrist or hand pain in the past month were assessed using logistic regression.

Results This analysis was based on 1111 participants. The prevalence of wrist or hand pain in the past month was 15.3%. Repeated movements of the wrist or finger >4 h (OR 2.63, 95% CI 1.80 to 3.84), high job strain (1.54, 1.04 to 2.28), job insecurity (1.55, 1.04 to 2.28), somatisation tendency (2.73, 1.75 to 4.26), pain catastrophising (1.56, 1.03 to 2.37), better mental (0.97, 0.95 to 0.99) and physical (0.96, 0.94-0.98) health and well-being were associated with wrist or hand pain in the past month, after adjusting for possible confounding factors. When all significant factors were examined in the same model, repeated movements of the wrist or finger >4 h (2.50, 1.71 to 3.67), somatisation (2.61, 1.65 to 4.13) and better physical health and well-being (0.96, 0.94 to 0.99) remained independently associated with wrist or hand pain in the past month.

Conclusions This study highlights that wrist or hand pain is prevalent in hospital nurses. Workplace physical factors and personal factors were associated with wrist or hand pain. Further longitudinal investigation is needed to examine the predictive nature of these factors.

  • Somatisation tendency
  • pain catastrophising
  • physical health
  • musculoskeletal disorders
  • cross sectional study
  • hand injury
  • occupational injury

https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2011-040267

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    Footnotes

    • IKS and VCWH are joint first authors.

    • Funding Funding was received from the Monash University Strategic Grant Scheme and Monash University Near Miss Grant for NHMRC projects in 2008. IKS was supported by the Ministry of Health Sri Lanka. VCWH was supported by Ministry of Higher Education's Academic Training Scheme, Malaysia. HLK was supported by a NHMRC Public Health Postdoctoral Fellowship (384354), Australia. DMU was supported by a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (1011975), Australia.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethics approval Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee and The Alfred Ethics Committee.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement The study is part of the the International Study of Physical, Cultural and Psychosocial Influences on Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Associated Disability (CUPID Study). In addition to the data presented in this manuscript, additional data included musculoskeletal pain from other sites (ie neck, shoulder, elbow, low back and knee), and the Back Beliefs Questionnaire and the GHQ12 questionnaire. The dataset is available to the authors of this manuscript and researchers at the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. The CUPID international study team, Professors David Coggon and Keith Palmer from Medical Research Council Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton has been supplied with a random sample of 250 participants from the original dataset of 1111 participants. The data will be use for comparison with data from other participating countries.