Avaliação da escala de desconforto osteomuscular para os membros superiores de trabalhadores sertanejos

Abstract

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders for upper limbs (UL-WMSDs) form a compound of occupational diseases common to many professions worldwide. UL-WMSDs are manifested in most cases by pain, resulting in musculoskeletal discomfort. This research aimed to construct a scale for the evaluation of musculoskeletal discomfort for the upper limb of workers in inner regions of the Brazilian states of Alagoas and Bahia. The discomfort assessment scale was constructed from self-reported pain symptoms by 420 workers from the inner regions of the Brazilian states of Alagoas and Bahia. The reliability and dimensionality of the collected data were analyzed by McDonald's Omega and exploratory factor analysis, respectively. The Item Response Theory (IRT) was used to create parameters for the discomfort scale. The musculoskeletal discomfort metric was constructed from the workers' response with six levels (varying from minimum discomfort to maximum discomfort). At the lowest level of the scale, workers showed rare symptoms in the shoulders and wrists. And at the highest level of the scale, daily pain symptoms are reported in all regions of the upper limbs, but the shoulders are the last member to develop extreme pain symptoms. The metric was created to present satisfactory psychometric properties and presented capable of measuring the workers' level of musculoskeletal discomfort based on self-reported pain symptoms. Therefore, the metric can support measuring discomfort, contributing to decisions that improve a healthier occupational environment for the worker.