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Prevalence of work-related thumb pain in physiotherapists and its association with hours of working and hand position used during the execution of manual techniques

. Araib Kaleem, Ayesha Manahil Kaleem, Taram ul Ain, Alisha Ajmal, Saira Bibi, Abdullah Siddiqui, Swaira Naeem, Mahnoor Syed & Dua Zhaira


Abstract

Thumb pain in physiotherapists is an underlying health condition due to repetitive engagement in manual techniques and prolonged working hours. We have done our investigation on this project in twin cities. The objective of our study is to investigate the frequency of thumb pain among physiotherapists, to conclude the relation between thumb pain and working hours, to check the association between the thumb pain and execution of manual techniques and to identify and highlight effective strategies for prevention of thumb pain. Cross-sectional survey was done using non- probability convenient sampling technique. The sample size was 367 calculated through Open EPI Tool. Study setting was government and private hospitals, medical universities, medical institutes, and private clinics. Target population included physiotherapists, DPT lecturers who were also clinically active, and Internees. Self-administered questionnaires and visual analog were used. To find the association’s chi square test was used. Out of 367 participants, out of 367 participants, 72.2% of physiotherapists occasionally suffered from thumb pain. And its association with working hours and hand positioning issignificant as the p-value is <0.05. This study also found an association between the hand posture used during manual therapytechniques and thumb pain among physiotherapists who perform manual techniques for a period of time greater than two hours.

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