Is there a relationship between hours spent engaging in the physical practise of osteopathy and the reported musculoskeletal pain in student and qualified osteopaths?
Item
- Title
- Is there a relationship between hours spent engaging in the physical practise of osteopathy and the reported musculoskeletal pain in student and qualified osteopaths?
- Author(s)
- Bliss, B
- Abstract
- Background Musculoskeletal pain (MSKP) is a leading cause of absence from work worldwide. Risk factors include, repetitive movements, lifting, and twisting. Manual therapy occupations, including osteopathy, commonly require practitioners to manoeuvre in this way. There are currently very few studies on MSKP in osteopaths in the literature, any existing literature focuses on physiotherapists and suggests there is a prevalence of MSKP in manual therapists. There is a gap in the literature on osteopathic MSKP and the characteristics that predispose it. Objective To answer the research question. Further participant characteristics were also reviewed in relation to MSKP. Null and alternative hypothesis were tested, with an expectation of increased hours spent practising per week to have an association with MSKP. Design Quantitative Research questionnaire. Methods Participants included registered osteopaths and 4th year student Osteopaths. Raw data was imported into Excel and analysed via analyse it. Non-parametric data was tested via the Kruskal-Wallis Test for data of 2+ groups, and the Wilcoxon-Mann Whitney test for 2 groups. Significance was at 5% and documented. Results A total of 214 participants were analysed for their relationships with MSKP. Results found no significance (P=0.60) between hours per week spent practising and MSK-HQ scores. No significance was found between all other characteristics tested, excluding body pain areas, where cervical spine pain was seen to have a link with age (P=0.03), and practitioner’s opinion on their pain where it was seen that those who strongly agreed osteopathy contributed to their pain had lower MSK-HQ scores, indicating more MSKP (P=0.0034). Discussion Some findings in this study were in line with wider literature on manual therapists with MSKP, particularly physiotherapy studies in the presence of MSKP. Osteopaths in this study were found to have better MSK-HQ scores than those in the MSK-HQ pilot study. Links between effected body parts in this and other studies has been found. Characteristics such as weight, illnesses and diet were found to have a link to MSKP in other studies, however were not documented in this study. Conclusion This study has been able to suggest that MSKP is prevalent in the osteopathic community, but unable to determine the contributing factors that predispose osteopaths to MSKP. Further studies are needed to attribute specific characteristics to MSKP.
- presented at
- European School of Osteopathy
- Date Accepted
- 2018
- Date Submitted
- 25.1.2019 17:18:24
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 16387
- Inst-Identifier
- 1229
- Keywords
- Work related musculosketal pain
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Bliss, B, “Is there a relationship between hours spent engaging in the physical practise of osteopathy and the reported musculoskeletal pain in student and qualified osteopaths?”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed May 3, 2025, https://www.osteopathic-research.com/s/orw/item/219