Health Risks among Doctors, Nurses and Operation Theatre Assistants Associated with Their Prolonged Standing Working Hours

Abstract

Background: To determine the prevalence of
health risks faced by the medical staff of three
hospitals in Rawalpindi due to prolonged standing.
Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study
all doctors, nurses and operation theatre assistants
working in three hospitals in Rawalpindi for
duration of at least 1 year were included. After
taking an informed consent, information on
demographic characteristics, body mass index,
duration since working in hospital, average
continuous standing hours/day, average total
standing hours/day was recorded on a selfadministered questionnaire and data was analysed
using SPSS version 23.0.
Results: A total of 191 questionnaires were filled
by the respondents. Out of these 80(41.8%) were
males and 111(58.1%) were females. 51.8% of the
participants were doctors, 36.6% nurses and 12.6%
operation theatre assistants. Varicose veins were
reported in 13.6% respondents. Most common
symptoms however were pain in legs(67%) and low
back pain(54.4%), the others being muscle
stiffness(45.5%), heaviness in lower
limbs(35.6%),swelling of legs(30.3%) and
numbness(19.8%). Majority(74.86%) of the
participants had an average total standing time of
more than 6 hours per day and 84.8% had one or
more of the given health problems.
Conclusion: Prolonged standing is a contributing
factor in the development of varicose veins and other
symptoms. People with high body mass index and
older age groups are more prone to such health
issues.
Key Words: Health risks, prolonged standing,
varicose veins