A Study on the Association between Job Stress and Musculoskeletal Workload in the Manufacturing Industry

ABSTRACT A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the association between musculoskeletal workload and psychosocial job stress variables from 100 employees from a cable making industry. It was found that the employees who had to do musculoskeletal hazardous tasks suffered higher psychosocial stress in 'decision latitude', 'job insecurity' and 'psychological job demands' also. The employees with higher level of psychosocial job stress in 'psychological job demands' and 'score of the "type A" personality' responded that they had higher 'physical job demands' from the task irrespective of its musculoskelet al hazardousness. These results confirm that musculoskeletal workload were associated with both physical and psychosocial work factors. Attention should be paid to psychosocial work factors along with physical workload to prevent musculoskeletal disorders in the manufacturing industries. Keyword: Job stress, Musculoskeletal workload, Psychosocial work factors, Association, Karasek model