الفهرس 
iNTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Workers at petroleum fields are continuously exposed to numerous hazards and working conditions that place them at continuous risk of injury.
Field workers mainly complain of ‘excessive work’, which encourages them to work at stress than is necessary.
Health problems arise if the mechanical workload is higher than the load-bearing capacity of the components of the musculoskeletal system e.g. bones, tendons, ligaments, muscles, etc.
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) can arise from a sudden exertion (e.g., lifting a heavy object) or they can arise from making the same motions repeatedly, repeated exposure to force, vibration or awkward posture.
This cross sectional study was conducted in a natural gas field in Bohira governorate aiming at studying the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders which might arise due to working in the field, studying the relationship between the resultant health disorders and the working conditions and putting programs for prevention and control of musculoskeletal disorders in this field.
This study included an exposed group of field workers (172) and distributed as follows: operational departments (109 workers), administrative departments (32workers) and support services departments (31 workers).
Control group consisting of an equal number (172 subjects) that was chosen randomly from the factory workers’ relatives. They were never working in petroleum fields.
The exposed group and controls were interviewed using a predesigned questionnaire that include: personal data, occupational history, present history of health problems, past history and family history followed by general and locomotor system examination with the routine articular physical examination that include: inspection, palpation, range of motion, special tests and evaluation the severity of pain using visual analogue scale (VAS).
Radiological investigations in the form of X-ray imaging and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were done for suspected participants.
In comparison between studied groups according to nature of work, results revealed that; there was a highly significant difference between the workers group and controls regarding {long standing, vibration and climbing stairs (P <0.001)} which already were more frequent among operation workers.
In this study, the presence of musculoskeletal manifestations in the form of regional muscular pain, painful movement, rest pain, repetitive pain and tingling hand or feet were statistically significant in the workers group versus the control group (P < 0.05).
As the operation workers were more vulnerable to musculoskeletal risk factors among all workers in the field, they had the most prevalent musculoskeletal complaints
On examination of locomotor system, it was noticed that, affected; muscle power, muscle tone and joint reflexes were statistically more prevalent in the workers group definitely among operation workers versus the control group.
peripheral sensation affection was more prevalent among administration workers which could be explained by; continuous computer use for the entire workday and repetitive computer work, have been associated with an increased risk of developing neck and upper extremities complaints over a large number of workers causing a negative feedback on peripheral sensation(P <0.001).
Manual materials handling is one of the recognized risk factors for back problems, with other factors such as bent and/or twisted position. This is familiar with this study, where the most prevalent MSD among field workers was low back pain 30.5 %.
Muscle fatigue is one of the main reasons causing work related MSDs. and accumulation of muscle fatigue will cause functional disability and musculoskeletal disorders.
Accordingly MRI scanning in the current study revealed that; muscle affection was the most prevalent followed by lumbosacral disc prolapse then cervical disc prolapse of all workers group. Certainly more frequent among operation workers than other departments except for a cervical disc prolapse, which was the most frequent among administration workers.
In this study, there was a highly significant difference in the percentage of musculoskeletal pain of those with over 9 years work than others.
The high prevalence of MSDs in the present study is surprising in relation to the health requirements of petroleum work. The MSDs problem will affect productivity because workers are not only injured when they are fatigued but they also tend to slow down.
from the results obtained in this study, pre-employment, periodic physical examination and radiological investigations should be included in for early detection and exclusion of affected workers.
Establishing a health education programs for workers and training should be provided for workers who are involved in jobs that include repetitive tasks. Workers need to know how to adjust workstations to fit the tasks and their individual needs. Training should also emphasize the importance of rest periods and teach how to take advantage of short periods of time between tasks to relax the muscles and how to consciously control muscle tension throughout the whole work shift.
As there is a lack of researches done on this scope, more comprehensive studies and field surveys should be encouraged and carried out taking in consideration other human and environmental factors.