Affiliations: [a] Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
| [b]
Special Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Novi Sad, Serbia
| [c]
Institute for Child and Youth Health Care of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia
| [d]
Institute for Pulmonary Diseases of Vojvodina, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia
| [e]
Health Center Bač, Bač, Serbia
| [f]
Health Center Bački Petrovac, Bački Petrovac, Serbia
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Jelena Zvekić-Svorcan, MD, PhD, Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Hajduk Veljkova 3, Novi Sad, Serbia. E-mail: jelena.zvekic-svorcan@mf.uns.ac.rs.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Neck pain (NP) is associated with high disability rates among healthcare workers. OBJECTIVE:To determine the potential risk factors associated with disability due to NP among healthcare staff working in primary care settings. METHODS:This 30-day prospective cross-sectional study involved a survey of 63 healthcare personnel (55 women and 8 men aged 45.30±12.34 years) of two primary healthcare centers in Serbia, who completed a general questionnaire developed for this purpose along with the Neck Disability Index (NDI), whereby the potential predictors of NP-related disability were assessed using the statistical package SPSS ver. 24. RESULTS:Female healthcare workers achieved a higher score on the NDI scale (Me = 8.00, p < 0.05), as did older respondents (r = 0.260, p < 0.05), those with longer work experience (r = 0.323, p < 0.05), and those that wear prescription glasses (Me = 9.00, p < 0.01). Higher NDI scores were also achieved by respondents that suffered from neck pain at the time of the study (Me = 12.50, p < 0.001), especially if they relied on pain medication (Me = 13.00, p < 0.05), and topical analgesic creams (Me = 12.50, p < 0.05) for treating neck pain. CONCLUSION:Female sex, older age, greater work experience, current neck pain, use of pain-relieving medications and creams, and need for prescription glasses to correct vision increase the risk of disability due to pain in the cervical spine among healthcare workers.
Keywords: Neck pain, workplace, health
personnel, primary health care
