Study selection
About 921 articles and reports were searched through electronic databases such as Web of Science, SCOPUS, PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Google Scholar, CINAHL, African Index Medicus, African Journals Online databases, and Science Direct from July 16 to August 22, 2020. Following the search for articles, 222 duplicate articles were excluded. Furthermore, 443 articles were excluded after initial screening, and 66 articles were excluded after full-text articles were assessed for eligibility. Finally, a total of 11 articles were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis (Figure 1).
Table 1. Overall characteristics of included articles in the systematic review and meta-analysis, 2020.
Reference
|
Publication year
|
Study period
|
Sample size
|
Prevalence of MSDs
|
Population
|
Region
|
Risk of bias
|
Shoulder
|
Neck
|
[23]
|
2020
|
2019
|
344
|
61.0
|
15.2
|
Vehicle Repair Workers
|
SNNP
|
Low
|
[24]
|
2020
|
2018
|
307
|
29.6
|
35.2
|
Bank workers
|
Tigray
|
Low
|
[25]
|
2019
|
2017
|
422
|
54.0
|
50.7
|
Hotel house keepers
|
Amhara
|
Low
|
[26]
|
2017
|
2016
|
422
|
68.2
|
NA
|
Pedestrian back loading women
|
SNNP
|
Low
|
[27]
|
2019
|
2018
|
417
|
27.1
|
29.3
|
Barbers
|
Amhara
|
Low
|
[28]
|
2019
|
2017
|
410
|
10.5
|
7.6
|
Construction workers
|
Oromia
|
Low
|
[29]
|
2020
|
2019
|
419
|
72.1
|
68.3
|
Tailors
|
Amhara
|
Low
|
[30]
|
2020
|
2019
|
652
|
53.7
|
53.4
|
Hairdressers
|
Oromia
|
Low
|
[31]
|
2020
|
2019
|
264
|
14.0
|
9.5
|
Cleaners
|
Tigray
|
Low
|
[32]
|
2020
|
2016/17
|
755
|
40.9
|
38.0
|
Bank workers
|
Addis Ababa
|
Low
|
[33]
|
2018
|
2015
|
301
|
14.1
|
24.0
|
Nurses
|
Oromia
|
Low
|
Keys: MSDs: Musculoskeletal Disorders; NA: Not Applicable; SNNP: Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples.
Characteristics of the included articles.
In this study, a total of 4,713 participants were included in 11 articles published in Ethiopia from 2017 to 2020 [23-33]. Regarding the region of the country where the studies were conducted, 3 (27.27%) articles [28,30,33] were carried out in Oromia, 3 (27.27%) articles [25,27,29] in Amhara, 2 (18.2%) articles [24,31] in Tigray, 2 (18.2%) in SNNP [23,26] and one (9.1%) article in the city administration of Addis Ababa [32]. The included studies were cross-sectional studies with a sample size ranging from 264 [31] to 755 [32] study participants.
Based on the JBI Critical Appraisal tool [35], all included articles had a low risk of bias. The prevalence of shoulder and neck pain related to work in the previous year ranged from 10.5% [28] to 72.1% [29] and 7.6% [28] to 68.3% [29], respectively.
Among the studies included in this work, 10(90.1%) [23-25, 27-33] reported the prevalence of shoulder and neck pain, while only one article [26] reported the prevalence of shoulder pain alone. Furthermore, 6 (55.44%) of the included articles were published in 2020 [23,24, 29-32] while 3(27.27%) articles [25,27,28] were published in 2019. (Table 1).
Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders
The meta-analysis was performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) Version 3 statistical package (software) to determine the combined prevalence of shoulder and neck musculoskeletal disorders in Ethiopia.
Prevalence of occupational-related shoulder pain
Overall pooled prevalence of shoulder pain.
The pooled prevalence of occupational-related shoulder pain in the previous year was found to be 37.9% with a 95% CI of 26.5 to 50.8%; I2 = 98.51% with a P-value < 0.001 (Figure 2).
Subgroup analysis of the pooled prevalence of shoulder pain.
Based on the subgroup analysis of the pooled prevalence of shoulder pain related to work based on the study population or participants, the overall pooled prevalence of shoulder pain in the previous year was 47.6% (95% CI: 45.8, 49.4% with a P value of =0.009]. Furthermore, after performing the subgroup analysis based on the year of publication, the total pooled prevalence of occupational-related shoulder pain in the previous year was 49.8 % with 95% CI 45.7, 53.9%) and a P value of >0.05]. After the subgroup analysis of the prevalence of shoulder pain was performed by study region, the overall pooled prevalence of occupational-related shoulder pain was 44.6 % with 95% (supplementary material I).
Prevalence of occupational-related neck pain.
Overall prevalence of neck pain.
The pooled prevalence of occupational-related neck pain in the previous year was 29.9% with a 95% CI of 20.1, 41.9% with a p-value of 0.002 and I2 = 98.29% with P-value < 0.001 (Figure 3).
Subgroup analysis of the prevalence of occupational-related neck pain.
After the subgroup analysis of work-related neck pain in the previous year based on the study population, the overall pooled prevalence of occupational-related neck pain in the previous year was 39.1% (95% CI 37.5, 40.7% with a P-value of < 0.001). After the subgroup analysis was performed based on the year of publication, the overall pooled prevalence of neck pain in the previous year was 25.1 percent, with a 95% CI of 20.8, 29.9%) and a P value <0.001]. Furthermore, after performing the subgroup analysis based on the study region, the total pooled prevalence of work-related neck pain was 32.6 percent, with a 95% CI of 29.8, 35.5%) and a p-value <0.001 (supplementary material II).