• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.311-322
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• 2014

This study was conducted to assess the impact of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) on health related quality of life (QoL) in the firefighter under the recent IT environment. The data were collected by face to face interview using a structured questionnaire in the 366 respondents. WMSDs symptoms were measured by a self-assessed questionnaire on symptom table of NIOSH and health-related QoL was measured by SF-36. The prevalence of WMSDs was 38.0% in upper limbs, 35.5% in the low back, 21.6% in lower limbs, and 59.3% in two or more parts of the body. Subjects with symptoms of WMSDs had significantly lower scores in 7 dimensions of QoL except 'emotional role limitation' than those without symptoms of WMSDs at the area of upper extremities (neck, shoulder, arm/wrist, and hand/wrist/fingers). On the other hand, subjects with symptoms of WMSDs had significantly lower scores on all QoL dimensions than those without symptoms of WMSDs at the area of lower back or lower extremities. These results suggest that WMSDs had a negative effect on QoL. Therefore, prevention of WMSDs should be considered intervention strategies for improvement of QoL, especially in firefighters.