EVALUATION OF WORK RELATED MUSCULOSKELETAL PAIN AND SLEEP HYGIENE AMONG IT PROFESSIONALS IN PONDICHERRY
Description
to evaluate the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and poor sleep hygiene among IT professionals, who are often exposed to prolonged screen time, poor posture, irregular sleep habits, and sedentary routines due to the nature of their work, and a total of 140 participants were selected through randomised sampling and divided into two groups: Group A with less than five years of IT experience and Group B with more than five years, with each participant assessed using two validated tools—the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ), which measured pain in various body regions such as the neck, shoulders, lower back, and wrists, and the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI), which assessed behavioural patterns related to sleep such as inconsistent bedtimes, electronic device usage, caffeine or stress-related disturbances, and the data collected was analysed using unpaired t-tests to compare results between groups and determine the significance of any differences, revealing that while musculoskeletal discomfort was highly prevalent in both groups—especially in the neck and lower back—the difference between the groups was not statistically significant, suggesting that even early-career professionals are at similar risk as experienced ones, and the sleep hygiene scores showed moderate issues across both groups, with no significant variation based on experience or gender, although female participants reported significantly higher levels of musculoskeletal pain, possibly due to anatomical, ergonomic, or stress-related factors, and overall, the study concluded that musculoskeletal disorders and poor sleep hygiene are common across all IT employees regardless of experience, indicating a need for workplace-level interventions such as ergonomic training, proper posture education, frequent physical activity breaks, and sleep hygiene awareness programs, which could collectively help in improving health outcomes, preventing chronic conditions, and enhancing productivity and well-being among IT professional