Musculoskeletal disorders self-reported by female nursing students in central Japan: a complete cross-sectional survey

We conducted an epidemiological investigation of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) among a complete cohort of 222 female nursing students in Yamanashi prefecture, central Japan. This study involved a retrospective analysis of data gathered by means of a self-reported, anonymous questionnaire. Symptom descriptions and evaluation criteria were drawn from previously validated studies. Slightly more than one-third of all nursing students (36.9%) reported a current MSD at some body site. By location, shoulder MSD was the most common condition; affecting 14.9% of them. This was followed by MSD of the lower back (13.5%), neck (9.5%), knee (5.0%), forearm (2.7%), legs (2.3%) and feet (1.8%). Headache was also reported by 4.5%. There were no statistically significant differences between MSD prevalence and year of study in the nursing course (P for trend=0.9534). However, previous hospital work was found to increase the risk of shoulder MSD by a factor of 4.4 (OR 4.4, 95%CI 1.3–13.3, P=0.0107) among the students within this study. Overall, our investigation showed that MSD was less common among a Japanese cohort than in previous reports of nursing students and working nurses.