Association of Upper Trapezius Pain with Perceived Exertion and Depression in Workers of the Food Industry

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association of upper trapezius pain with perceived exertion and depression among food industry workers.METHODOLOGY: It was an analytical cross-sectional study carried out from November 2021 to March 2022 after Ethical approval. One hundred food worker samples in Lahore were selected by a nonprobability convenient sampling technique. The participants were male and female in the age group of 25-40, with 8-12 hours of duty time/day. The outcome tools were the Visual Analogue Scale, Borg Exertion Scale and Depression Inventory Scale. All the data was entered in SPSS V.25 for analysis of data. Quantitative variables are presented using Mean & PLUSMN; SD (Standard deviation) and categorical variables with frequencies, while the association was determined using the Chi-square test.RESULTS: In the current study, there were 76% male and 24% female participants with a mean age of 30.53 & PLUSMN;5.30 years. Among the participants, 32% had moderate pain, 24% had severe pain, 21% had strenuous physical activity exertion, and 19% had light physical activity exertion, But 21% had mild depression, and 9% had severe depression. There was a significant association between upper trapezius pain rating with physical activity exertion level at P= 0.007 and depression at P= 0.000CONCLUSION: This study concluded that there was a significant association between upper trapezius pain, the level of Physical Exertion and Depression. The upper trapezius pain intensity increases the level of depression and physical exertion.