P108 Awareness of musculoskeletal disorders and its health impact among civil servants in Malaysia: a cross-sectional survey

Background

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders have been perceived as one of the reasons of declining work productivity in relation to absenteeism, sick leave or early retirement. We have determined the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among current working civil servants and have assessed the health impact of musculoskeletal disorders towards them or other people surrounding them.

Methods

Participants were given a self-administered questionnaire consisting of demographic data, experience of musculoskeletal disorders, perceptions, knowledge and attitudes towards musculoskeletal disorders. Out of 174 participants, 147 returned completed forms (response rate: 84.5%). Data were analysed using SPSS Statistics v22.

Results

The average age of the respondents with standard deviation was 39.9 ± 9.82 years and a majority were female (78.2%). Mean body mass index between the participants were 26.36 ± 5.26, normal to obese range. Most of the participants described their type of job as active in nature (51.7%) with a majority working 5-8 hours per day. Mean duration for years of working in service were 16.20 ± 9.53. Half of them had musculoskeletal pain within the last 3 months prior to the study date, with highest frequency over the knee joint (29.9%) followed by lower back (21.8%) and shoulder area (21.1%). From the multivariate logistic regression analyses, only 2 factors in the knowledge section showed statistical associations regarding questions asking whether the participants knew what arthritis was (p = 0.005), and if they experienced arthritis themselves (p = 0.002). We found that there were no significant associations between the race, education level, marital status, type of work, duration of work or body mass index (BMI) with the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain within the participants.

Conclusion

The majority of respondents had knee pain followed by lower back pain and shoulder pain. Although there is strong correlation between knowledge of arthritis among participants, majority of them cannot specify the type of arthritis correctly. As such, continuous health education and promotion of the programme is vital.

Disclosures

H. Ariff None. N. Shahril None. L. Eow None. W. Wan Musa None. S. Rajalingam None. M. Jeffrizal None. A. Ramlan None. S. Selvadurai None. D. Ang None. D. Suahilai None. L. Mohd Isa None.

Sera of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus cross-neutralizes dengue viruses

Dengue is the most prevalent mosquito-borne disease in Southeast Asia, where the incidence of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is approximately 30 to 53 per 100,000. Severe dengue, however, is rarely reported among individuals with SLE. Here, whether sera of patients with SLE cross-neutralize dengue virus (DENV) was investigated. Serum samples were obtained from individuals with SLE who were dengue IgG and IgM serology negative. Neutralization assays were performed against the three major DENV serotypes. Of the dengue serology negative sera of individuals with SLE, 60%, 61% and 52% of the sera at 1/320 dilution showed more than 50% inhibition against dengue type-1 virus (DENV-1), DENV-2 and DENV-3, respectively. The neutralizing capacity of the sera was significantly greater against DENV-1 (P < 0.001) and DENV-3 (P < 0.01) than against DENV-2 (P < 0.05). Neutralization against the DENV correlated with dengue-specific IgG serum titers below the cut-off point for dengue positivity. Depletion of total IgG from the sera of patients with SLE resulted in significant decreases of up to 80% in DENV inhibition, suggesting that IgG plays an important role. However, some of the SLE sera was still able to neutralize DENV, even with IgG titers <0.1 OD absorbance. Our findings suggest that sera of patients with SLE contain IgG, and possibly other type of antibodies, that can cross-neutralize DENV, which may explain the rarity of severe dengue in individuals with SLE. Further studies, are needed to further substantiate this finding and to elucidate the specific neutralizing epitopes recognized by the sera of individuals with SLE.