THE PREVALENCE OF CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME AMONG COUNTER WORKERS IN TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANY
Author: Shamsul Bahri Mohd TAMRIN, Nur Sabreena ZAKARIA
Abstract:The objectives of this study are to determine the prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) among the frontline counter workers and the associated risks. A cross sectional study was conducted among 100 frontline counter staffs whose working at the telecommunication company in Klang Valley area. A stratified random sampling was used to select the respondents. Respondents were interviewed by using structured questionnaire and Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ). The structured questionnaire is used to determine demographic data, meanwhile CMDQ is to measure the discomfort of both right and left hands. A Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA) is designed instrument to quantify exposure to office work environment. ROSA is a picture based posture checklist to obtain the risk level of workstation. The finding revealed that the prevalence of CTS among counter workers of the telecommunication company was 63%. Chi Square test indicated that there was no association between sociodemographic factors for age, gender, BMI, and race except marital status and education level with p>0.05. On the right hand, nearly 53% of the respondents had discomfort on the index and middle finger (χ²=8.45, p=0.07), 31% on the ring finger and pinkie (χ²=6.97, p=0.13), 42% on the distal thumb (χ²=1.93, p=0.75), 38% on the hand and metacarpal area (χ²=7.36, p=0.12), 53% on the thumb base (χ²=3.95, p=0.41), and 40% reported discomfort on the heel of hand (χ²=4.50, p=0.34). There was no significant association between office work design and CTS. This study found that the counter workers in telecommunication company reported high case of CTS. The prevalence of CTS was high however showed no association with the workstation assessment among counter workers area.
Keywords: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ), Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA), counter workers