The Relationship between Musculoskeletal Pain and Demographic Variables in Nursing and Midwifery Students

Aim: Musculoskeletal pain refers to pain in the muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, and nerves. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between factors affecting musculoskeletal pain and demographic variables of nursing and midwifery students. studying in Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) Method and Instrument: The method of this cross-sectional study was descriptive– correlational through which ۱۲۰ nursing and midwifery students of Tehran University of medical sciences aged between ۱۸-۲۲ years were studied. The sample was selected by simple random sampling and standard Nordic pain questionnaire was used to measure the prevalence of pain. To test the hypotheses, in addition to descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, chi-square test was used. Data were analyzed by SPSS-۲۵ software. Findings: Totally, ۱۲۰ nursing and midwifery students including ۵۵.۸% of nursing students (N=۶۷) and ۴۴.۲% midwifery students (N=۵۳) were studied. The results showed that nursing students more than midwifery students were suffering from at least one more musculoskeletal pain. This study showed that there is statistically significant difference between nursing and midwifery students in terms of foot pain (P <۰.۰۱) that means the rate of foot pain in nursing students was higher than midwifery students. Conclusion: Findings from this study showed that there was a relationship between demographic variables, field of study and musculoskeletal pain. Therefore, nursing students might suffer from more musculoskeletal pain.