Discomfort in the upper extremities affects and restricts the daily activities and work of many workers. This study was conducted to apply a standardized tool for identifying musculoskeletal symptoms and measuring how greatly these symptoms affect the performance of workers in small manufacturing industries as well as to analyze the relationships between the socio-demographic characteristics of the workers, the psychosocial factors, and ergonomic risk factors on the one hand and the reported musculoskeletal symptoms and their effects on work performance on the other.

Workers in small manufacturing companies were asked to self-evaluate musculoskeletal symptoms, restrictions on work performance, and the ergonomic risk in their working environments. A standardized tool (musculoskeletal symptoms table, DASH [Disability of the arm, shoulder, and hand]) was used to evaluate the musculoskeletal symptoms and the restrictions on work performance.

1) The DASH score was significantly higher among women, older workers who had been in that job for a long time, married workers, those with no leisure activities or hobbies, those with long hours of housework, those who had experienced a disease in the past, and those who had had an accident in the past; 2) the DASH score was also significantly higher for those workers who were unsatisfied with their work, who worked hard, who no control over their work, and whose work required heavy equipment, tools, and materials; 3) the DASH score was significantly higher in workers with major ergonomic risk factors; 4) the DASH score was significantly higher among workers with occupational musculoskeletal disease and was distributed as follows, from highest to lowest rates of occurrence; symptoms in the upper arms, difficulty sleeping, difficulty with work, restrictions in daily activities, restrictions in social activities, and difficulties in specific work performance; 5) explanatory power increased in the model with the addition of socio-demographic variables, i.e., in analyses with the DASH total score as the dependent variable and psychosocial factors, ergonomic risk factors, and upper extremity discomfort symptoms as the independent variables. The total explanatory power found a significant effect at 35.3%.

The results of this study show that to enhance the upper extremity performance level of workers in the manufacturing industry, preventive measures should be based on a consideration of ergonomic risk factors, psychosocial factors, and the socio-demographic characterisitics of the individual workers.