Affiliations: DDepartment of Physiology, South Calcutta Girls' College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Note: [] Address for correspondence: B. Das, 100 Biplabi Ganesh Ghosh Sarani, Post-Bhadrakali, Dist Hooghly, Pin Code-712232,
West Bengal, India. Tel.: +91 94 33895285; +91 33 26640388; Fax: +91 33 24542265; E-mail: dr.banibrata@gmail.com; dr.banibrata@yahoo.com
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal disorder is one of the major health
hazards among the rice farmers. Both men and women rice farmers have been shown
to experience elevated risks of prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal
disorders (WMSD). OBJECTIVE: To estimate the different ergonomic risk
factors associated with rice farming identify potential gender differences and
the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among the rice farmers. PARTICIPANTS: Rice farmers – 110 men and 110 women were selected from the
villages of West Bengal, India. METHODS: Modified Nordic Questionnaires
were administered to assess the prevalence of MSDs. Detailed posture analysis
was performed along with the administration of the Body-part Discomfort Scale.
Objective measurements of physiological parameters and lung function values
were also recorded. RESULTS: From this study it was revealed that the
most subjects (99%) suffered discomfort at different parts of the body
especially at low back (93.8%), shoulder (60.9%), hand (53.6%) and
knee (80.9%) due to awkward posture (99%) and excessive repetitive task
(95%) for a prolonged period of time. Both group of rice farmers suffered
maximum discomfort feeling during digging (87.7%), sowing seeds (82.7%),
harvesting (90.9%) and carrying crops (99%) activities. The farmers also
suffered from severe physiological and thermal stress which hampered their
other daily activities. CONCLUSIONS: The study conclude that women
farmers felt significantly (p< 0.001) higher discomfort feeling than men
rice farmers due to perform numerous household activities which further
enhanced their discomfort feeling in their different body parts.
Keywords: Discomfort feeling, nordic questionnaire, heart rate, net cardiac cost, lung function values, posture analysis
