Yasir Qaiser Choudhary, Muhammad Qasim Idress.
Frequency of Musculoskeletal Pain among Chefs Working in Restaurants of Lahore.
J Riphah Coll Rehab Sci Jan ;8(2):69-73.

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal pain arises in many occupations. Chefs working in restaurants perform the repetitive motion, forceful exertions in non-neutral body postures, which make them susceptible to musculoskeletal pain. This occupation needs to be evaluated for the chefs on the musculoskeletal pain scale for better understanding of their demanding job description in a restaurant which causes health problems. Objective: To determine the frequency of musculoskeletal pain in chefs working in restaurants of Lahore. Methodology: Cross-sectional survey design with convenient sampling technique was used. Numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) and the Nordic questionnaire was undertaken to determine the frequency among chefs working in different restaurants of Lahore. Inclusions of chefs were based on satisfying the criteria of age from 25-50, experience of 2 years or more and minimum working hours 8. While incomplete questionnaire, previous trauma or surgery to the site of pain or kitchen aid workers were excluded from the study. The data was gathered from the period of June 2018 till September 2018. Results: This study includes n=200 male chefs. Mean and standard deviation of NPRS was 0.52 � 1.35. 37(18.5%) chefs responded that they experienced pain within the past 12 months. Low back being the most affected region 12(8%), followed by region of neck 9(4.5%), shoulder 7(3.5%), wrist/hand 4(2.0%), knees 4(2.0%), hips/thighs 3(1.5%) ankle/feet 2(1.0%). The odds ratio of developing musculoskeletal pain if working >10 hours is OR=0.72 (0.08-6.2 95%CI). Significant association between the age groups and NPRS was found (?2=16.30, p=0.012). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that musculoskeletal pain is frequent in chefs, though it was found to be low on NPRS. Low back pain was found to be the frequent region of the complaint. Keywords: Frequency, Low Back Pain, Musculoskeletal Pain, Numeric Pain Rating Scale.

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