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Work from home and musculoskeletal pain in telecommunications workers during COVID-19 pandemic: a pilot study

Azra Huršidić Radulović
Azra Huršidić Radulović
, 
Roko Žaja
Roko Žaja
, 
Milan Milošević
Milan Milošević
, 
Bojana Radulović
Bojana Radulović
, 
Ivica Luketić
Ivica Luketić
 and 
Tajana Božić
Tajana Božić
   | Sep 28, 2021
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Article Category: Original article
Published Online: Sep 28, 2021
Page range: 232 - 239
Received: May 01, 2021
Accepted: Sep 01, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aiht-2021-72-3559
© 2021 Azra Huršidić Radulović, Roko Žaja, Milan Milošević, Bojana Radulović, Ivica Luketić, and Tajana Božić, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Severity of lower back pain related to work from home by gender; * significant difference (P=0.033)
Severity of lower back pain related to work from home by gender; * significant difference (P=0.033)

Figure 2

Severity of upper back and neck pain related to work from home by gender; * significant difference (P=0.001)
Severity of upper back and neck pain related to work from home by gender; * significant difference (P=0.001)

Figure 3

Severity of hand pain related to work from home by gender; * significant difference (P=0.013)
Severity of hand pain related to work from home by gender; * significant difference (P=0.013)

Figure 4

Self-reported working hours at home vs the office by gender; * significant difference (P=0.05)
Self-reported working hours at home vs the office by gender; * significant difference (P=0.05)

Figure 5

Taking more breaks while working from home than at the office by gender; * significant difference (P=0.003)
Taking more breaks while working from home than at the office by gender; * significant difference (P=0.003)

Severity of musculoskeletal pain related to work from home

Lower back pain Upper back/neck pain Hand pain
N % N % N %
Stronger than in the office 90 39.1 105 45.7 63 27.2
Same as in the office 53 23.1 44 19.1 47 20.3
Weaker than in the office 7 3.0 8 3.5 5 2.1
No pain 80 34.8 73 31.7 117 50.4
Total 230 100.0 230 100.0 232 100.0

Being disturbed at work from home (N=164)

Disturbances N %
Yes, all the time 4 2.4
Yes, occasionally 112 68.3
No 48 29.3
Total 164 100.0

Psychometric properties of the dimension Disturbance

Indicators to measure a dimension Disturbance
No. of items 5
Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.937
Standardised Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.938
Arithmetic mean of items 1.225
Average correlation between items 0.751
Arithmetic mean of the dimension 6.1250
Standard deviation of the dimension 3.48986

Workplaces at home shared with other household members (N=87)

Shared workplace N %
Dining room 30 34.5
Nursery/children's bedroom 2 2.3
Living room 35 40.2
Kitchen 13 14.9
Bedroom 7 8.0
Total 87 100.0

Distribution of participants having an ergonomic office chair and computer mouse for work from home

Responses Ergonomic chair N (%) Ergonomic mouse N (%)
Yes, but not provided by the employer 65 (28.0) 40 (17.2)
Yes, provided by the employer 10 (4.3) 38 (16.4)
No 157 (67.7) 154 (66.4)
Total 232 (100.0) 232 (100.0)

Spearman’s rank correlations between variables and reports of stronger musculoskeletal pain

Variables Lower back p Upper back/neck p Hands p
Office chair -0.257 0.000 -0.312 0.000 -0.218 0.001
Office desk -0.118 0.073 -0.212 0.001 -0.182 0.005
Disturbance by household members 0.157 0.047 0.306 0.000 0.308 0.000
Longer working hours 0.249 0.000 0.219 0.001 0.257 0.000
Male gender -0.161 0.014 -0.220 0.001 -0.193 0.003
No (regular) exercise 0.163 0.13 0.172 0.009 0.134 0.041
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Journal Subjects:
Medicine, Basic Medical Science, other
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