Health Risks among Doctors, Nurses and Operation Theatre Assistants Associated with Their Prolonged Standing Working Hours

Abstract

Background: To determine the prevalence of health risks faced by the medical staff of three hospitals in Rawalpindi due to prolonged standing.

Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study all doctors, nurses and operation theatre assistants working in three hospitals in Rawalpindi for duration of at least 1 year were included. After taking an informed consent, information on demographic characteristics, body mass index, duration since working in hospital, average continuous standing hours/day, average total standing hours/day was recorded on a self-administered questionnaire and data was analysed using SPSS version 23.0.

Results:  A total of 191 questionnaires were filled by the respondents. Out of these 80(41.8%) were males and 111(58.1%) were females. 51.8% of the participants were doctors, 36.6% nurses and 12.6% operation theatre assistants. Varicose veins were reported in 13.6% respondents. Most common symptoms however were pain in legs(67%) and low back pain(54.4%), the others being muscle stiffness(45.5%), heaviness in lower limbs(35.6%),swelling of legs(30.3%) and numbness(19.8%). Majority(74.86%) of the participants had an average total standing time of more than 6 hours per day and 84.8% had one or more of the given health problems.

Conclusion: Prolonged standing is a contributing factor in the development of varicose veins and other symptoms. People with high body mass index and older age groups are more prone to such health issues.