Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Musculoskeletal disorders are common in the working population, primarily in the lower back, neck and upper extremities. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire is a standard tool for the analysis of musculoskeletal disorders in an ergonomic or occupational health context. The purpose of this study was to validate and adapt the original questionnaire into Hungarian.
METHODS: We carried out the adaptation based on the six-step method: translation, synthesis, back-translation, pre-testing, internal consistency testing, external validation with another questionnaire. Two translators translated the English questionnaire into Hungarian. It became a synthesis, which was translated back into the original language by a third translator, after which we performed the pretest with 30 firefighters, which was repeated a week (retest). Cronbach’s alpha value was calculated for internal consistency, Spearman’s correlation for external validity and test-retest. We assessed 175 firefighters (38±11 years). Using the NMQ, we assessed problems in the locomotive organs during in the last 12 months and 7 days. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used, and the level of significance was set to p<0.05.
RESULTS: The lower back area was considered the region most often problematic for firefighters followed by the shoulders and the neck problems. A significant correlation was found between age (p=0.001), employment relationship (p=0.005) and shoulder problems, between the help of the specialist and problems in the last 7 days (low back: p=0.047, neck, shoulder: p<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Our conclusion was stated that the degree of the employment relationship can be decisive for the frequency of the problems occurring in each area of the firefighters' body. The Hungarian version of the Scandinavian questionnaire is easily and quickly applied questionnaire, and reliable, valid for assessing possible musculoskeletal problems at work.