Exposure to whole body vibration in heavy mine vehicle drivers and its association with upper limbs musculoskeletal disorders

Background: Vibration as one of the harmful physical factors is relatively present in a wide range of jobs. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are among the most prevailing complaints of workers encountering occupational factors for example vibration. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate vibration and its association with the MSDs in upper limbs of heavy mine vehicles drivers. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted, on heavy mine vehicles of Gol-Gohar Sirjan Centre, Sirjan, Iran. In general, 288 drivers with 92 vehicles were working at the mine site. SVAN958 vibration meters and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire were used to measure whole body vibration and upper limb MSDs, respectively. Finally, the data were analysed using SPSS. Results: The highest average equilibrated acceleration was in graders (2.179 m/s2) and drills had the lowest average acceleration (0.479 m/s2). Prevalence of MSDs within past 12 months showed a significant difference in the neck (P = 0.044) and elbow (P = 0.023) between case and control group. The whole body vibration variable was associated with MSDs in the neck (P = 0.020) and wrist/hands (P = 0.030), and with increase in vibration the MSDs showed a 59% increase in neck and 72% in wrist/hands. In multivariate analysis, the whole body vibration variable had a significant relation with MSDs in wrist/hand (P = 0.027) and caused an 83% increase in the risk of MSDs per each unit in wrist/hand. Conclusions: The prevalence of disorders in studies with short duration is probably not quite visible; however, by increasing the working experience with these vehicles which have higher vibration than standard rates, the chance of developing MSDs increases.