The associations between musculoskeletal pain and mental distress among the hospital nurses

Introduction
The investigations on musculoskeletal pain in the recent years have found associations with mental health problems. Nurses constitute the specific occupation with adverse psychosocial job factors and common musculoskeletal disorders. The objective of our study was to investigate the associations between musculoskeletal pain and mental distress among the hospital nurses in Lithuania, taking into account the possible effects from psychosocial job characteristics.

Methods
A random sample of the Lithuanian hospitals’ internal medicine nurses (N=748, response rate 53.9%). has been investigated by anonymous questionnaire containing the information on psychosocial factors at work and everyday life (job demands, job control, social support, workplace bullying, shift work, life-threatening events), heavy lifting, health behaviors (smoking, alcohol, being overweight, obesity, low leisure physical activity), mental distress (GHQ-12), job satisfaction, sense of coherence and musculoskeletal pain (Nordic pain Questionnaire). SPSS 14.0 for Windows was used in the statistical analysis. The logistic regression analysis was performed.

Results
More than half of the investigated nurses reported musculoskeletal pain. Consistent associations were found between low back pain and mental distress (OR= 3.03; 95% CI 1.77-5.18, after adjustment for age, adverse psychosocial factors, health behaviors, job satisfaction and sense of coherence. The adjusted OR for neck/shoulder pain was 1.74; 95% CI 1.08-2.79, after further adjustment for job demands it decreased to statistically insignificant. The adjusted OR of low leisure physical activity for neck/shoulder pain was 7.77; 95% CI 3.28-18.36.

Discussion
Consistent associations between musculoskeletal pain and mental distress among nurses were found. Mental distress is determined by a variety of psychosocial factors at work and everyday life. Occupational psychosocial factors are changeable, thus the preventive strategies against adverse psychosocial job characteristics among the hospital nurses should be applied.