Abstract

The objective of this work is to evaluate the effect of occupation and physical features on musculoskeletal pain location. One thousand, nine hundred and eighty seven (1987) voluntary adults participated in the study from 7 regions of Turkey in 2006. Subjects with musculoskeletal pain of at least one month's duration that had been recurrent minimally twice in any regions of the body and who had not taken any medication and treatment were included in this study. Data were gathered through an anonymous self-reporting questionnaire which included questions such as pain location on the schema, age, gender, case and family history, occupation, height, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) and residence region of Turkey. Corresponding analysis results are statistically significant between variables in all groups (p<0.05). While neck pain is more frequent among civil servants and students, lower extremities pain is frequent in housewives. Hip and chest pains are more seen in the retired subjects. There are relatively more head, elbow, abdomen and thoracic pains in 18 to 25 age group whereas neck, low-back, leg and ankle pains are observed in 26 to 40 age group. Shoulder/arm and low back pains are relatively more frequent among 41 to 55 ages. All extremity pain is more frequent in females between 41 and 55 ages. Knee and low back pains are relatively more frequent in subjects heavier than 76 kg and BMI of 25 kg/m² or greater. Sedentary life, work related problems and obesity are apparent in early ages and musculoskeletal pain locations are especially in vertebral column. All ages of the community should be well-informed about how to prevent the musculoskeletal problems.

Key words: Pain, public health, musculoskeletal diseases, questionnaires, corresponding analysis.