Differences in developing risk of musculoskeletal disorders between cashiers of a supermarket in Sepang who work on weekdays and weekends

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are conditions where there are injuries or inflammatory at human body that can affect musculoskeletal system of the body, especially at muscles, nerves, tendons, joints, cartilage, and spinal discs. Meanwhile, work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are conditions in which the work environment and performance of work contribute significantly to the condition and/or the condition is made worse or persists longer due to work conditions. Awkward and static postures, repetitive motions, weight handling and absence of resting period for recovery during working days are among factors that can cause MSDs among workers. Many studies conducted in the past had shown a prevalence of MSDs among cashiers, particularly cashiers at supermarkets. Their job tasks generally force them to be surrounded with risk factors of MSDs which can lead to developed MSDs symptoms in a long-term. Most importantly, due to surge in customers on weekends, cashiers who have work shift on the weekends require more repetitiveness movement and faster pace of work as they handle goods from crowds of customers, resulting to higher probability of them to develop risk of MSDs compared to cashiers who have work shifts on weekdays. Mann-Whitney U Test was used to verify the differences in the risk development of MSDs for the cashiers’ weekdays and weekends work shifts. The result of this study shows that the REBA score obtained by the cashiers who had work shift on the weekends was higher compared to REBA score obtained by cashiers who had work shifts on the weekdays. The main findings in this study depicts a clear difference in the risk development of MSDs between supermarket cashiers who work on weekdays and weekends.