Objective  To understand the occurrence of symptoms of work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) among nursing staff in Haikou City and to explore its influencing factors, so as to provide a basis for formulating intervention measures and improve the health of nursing staff.

  Methods  The nurses with working experience of one year or more in two top tertiary hospitals in Haikou City were surveyed by using self-assessment questionnaires for musculoskeletal disorders, including general conditions, health conditions and work condition. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of WMSDs.

  Results  A total of 717 questionnaires were distributed and 714 were effectively recovered. The total WMSDs prevalence rate of the nursing staff was 85.43% during their work period, with 83.75% in the last year and 71.85% in the last week. The higher prevalence rate was in the waist, neck and shoulder. The absenteeism rate of these nurses due to WMSDs was 11.5% during their work period, 8.3% in the last year and 4.3% in the last week, respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that the WMSDs risk of nurses with working time more than 21 years was 5.784 times higher than that of those with working time less than 5 years(P < 0.05). The WMSDS risk of nurses was higher among the nursing staff who felt slightly or very tired after work(2.721 times), had bend down sharply (2.692 times)or were forced to bend over due to limited space(2.194 times), slipped or fall occasionally (2.228 times), and had frequent head movement(2.456 times). The WMSDs risk of nurses who had sufficient rest time and worked outdoors was lower(0.319 and 0.285 times)than the others(P < 0.01).

  Conclusions  The prevalence of WMSDs among nursing staff in Haikou City was relatively high, and the most common was in the waist. The important influencing factors of WMSDs were work time, post-working fatigue and poor ergonomic factors.