Does mental workload can lead to musculoskeletal disorders in healthcare office workers? Suggest and investigate a path

Abstract

Considering the increased mental workload in office jobs, this research aimed to evaluate the association between mental workload and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) by assessing the mediating role of fatigue and sleep quality in office personnel. In this cross-sectional study we applied the structural equation modeling. The research population included office personnel of a healthcare in Borujerd, Iran, 243 of whom were selected via simple random sampling. Research tools included CMDQ, SOFI, PSQI, and SWAT. In addition, data analysis was performed in SPSS version 18 and AMOS version 18. Our findings showed a significant correlation between mental workload and sleep quality and fatigue with MSDs (P ≤ 0.05). The model proposed in this study had a proper goodness of fit, which demonstrated the mediating role of variables of fatigue and sleep quality in the relationship between mental workload and MSDs. According to the results of the study, the incidence of MSDs could be reduced by decreasing mental workload, fatigue and sleep quality.