Musculoskeletal pain: comparison between administrative and production employees of a poultry farming company.

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are the most frequently reported group of diseases in Brazil, their occurrence being favored by work in the industrial sector. The present study is justified by the need to investigate more thoroughly the occurrence of musculoskeletal symptoms among poultry farming workers, since this subject is scarcely explored in the Brazilian literature.

Objective: To analyze the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among production and administrative employees of a poultry farming company, describe the sociodemographic and occupational profile of both groups of workers and test associations between pain and sociodemographic and occupational variables.

Methods: Cross-sectional correlational study which included sociodemographic and occupational characterization and administration of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire and a numeric pain rating scale.

Results: The sample comprised 154 production employees and 24 administrative workers. Pain was the single musculoskeletal symptom reported, with prevalence of over 85% in both groups. Female production employees exhibited 2.9 times higher odds of pain compared to the males. The body sites most frequently involved were the neck and upper and lower back among the administrative employees and the shoulders and the upper and lower back among the production workers.

Conclusion: Pain was the most prevalent musculoskeletal symptom in the analyzed sample of poultry farming workers. Statistically significant difference was not found between the groups despite their different work processes. Both groups exhibited extremely high rates of illness, which points to the need for more thorough investigation of the causal relationships of musculoskeletal symptoms.