Frequency of Musculoskeleton Health Problems and its Relation with Demographic Variables among Cherat Coal Miners District Nowshera Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Pakistan

Objectives: The objective was to determine the frequency of musculo-skeleton health problems among thecoal miners and to assess the relation of musculo-skeleton with various demographic variables among cheratcoal miners of District Nowshera Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Pakistan. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted between July and December 2014 atthe cherat coal mines of District Nowshera. A sample size of 400 was selected through cluster samplingtechnique, in which the study area was divided into four clusters and then from each cluster 40% coal minerswere selected based on simple random technique. There are approximately 80-90 Cherat coal mines in whicharound 1000 of coal miners are working. Coal miner’s having more than one year of coal mining job wereincluded in the study while those with less than one year or having any pathological problems were excludedfrom the study population. Field visits were conducted to collect relevant data from the study areas. Thestructured pretested questionnaire was used to collect data regarding history of musculo-skeleton problemsand was evaluated with the selected demographic variables like age, duration of coal mining job, job satisfaction,and previous history of mine injuries. Results: Our study results showed that approximately 61% of coal miners had history of musculo-skeletonproblems. Among those coal miners who gave history of musculo-skeleton problems, 76.64% were due tolack of training, 24.59% to early 1-4 years of coal mining job, 60.23% to less than 30 years of coal miner’sage, 75.00% to unsatisfied with job, 83.19% to poor/bad knowledge of mine safety measures; 58.87% for notusing personnel protective measures; and 67.62% to positive smoking history while the remaining 32.38 wereamong non-smokers. Conclusion: The frequency of occupational musculo-skeleton problems among coal miners 61% more andhad strong relationship with age, duration of coal mining job, smoking behavior, job satisfaction, coal miningtraining, knowledge regarding occupational safety and health practices, and with compliance of personnelprotective devices.