Somatic disorders and ergonomic considerations in computer use among the employees of a University

Introduction & Purpose: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and computer work are common in majority of the society and both show an increasing trend. This study was conducted to survey on Somatic disorders, MSDs frequency and ergonomic considerations awareness regarding computer use among the employees of Babol University of Medical Sciences (North of Iran). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 128 administrative staff of medical, dental and paramedical faculties in 2012. The samples were collected by simple method the data were gathered by means of a tailor-made data collection sheet that consisted of 5 open and 13 closed-ended questions. The data were analyzed with descriptive and analytical statistical indexes. Results: According to our data, the mean age of employees was 38.16±7.78 years, 55.5% were females and 63.3% were in bachelor’s degree. More than fifty percent of the samples spend 2 hours or more on their computer a day. Seventy two percent of the staff reported experiencing one or more MSDs symptoms and less than 10% of them were aware of ergonomic considerations in this regard. Chi-square test result showed that a significant statistical difference between MSDs with duration of using computer. (p