Worldwide work-related musculoskeletal disorder prevalence among nurses: systematic review and meta-analysis

• Nurses are highly exposed to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. • Lower back, neck, shoulder are the most affected body areas. • WMSD wrist prevalence was correlated with years of experience and age. • WMSD elbow prevalence was correlated with years of experience. • WMSD neck prevalence was correlated with years of publication. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are very common among nurses, affecting their health and daily work activities. The aim of this study was to investigate the worldwide overall WMSD and for nine body areas prevalence among nurses. A systematic review and a meta -analysis were performed by scanning ScienceDirect, PubMed/Medline, Google Scholar, Science.gov , and Mendeley to find relevant studies. The article selection process, critical appraisal, and data extraction were performed independently by the two authors. PRISMA was used for reporting the search results. Heterogeneity of the studies was assessed using Cochran’s Q test and I2 statistic. A meta -regression analysis was performed to investigate the impact of publication year, participants’ age, years of experience and body mass index on WMSD prevalence. Application of the inclusion/exclusion criteria identified 90 studies from the 15,751 unique records identified by the search, for a total of 45,985 nurses. A high heterogeneity was found between studies, requiring the use of a random-effects model to assess prevalence. The results of the meta -analysis showed an overall prevalence of 81.1%. The lower back (58.5%), neck (45.9%), and shoulder (40.9%), were the three areas most affected by WMSDs. A significant effect was found for 4 regressions: work experience (in years) on the wrist WMSD prevalence, age on the elbow and wrist WMSD prevalence, and year of publication on the neck WMSD prevalence. The development of ergonomic programs, organizational work strategies and assistive devices must be pursued to provide answers to the multifactorial problem of WMSDs for safe working environment.