Sitmate: an android mobile application for the prevention of musculoskeletal discomfort among a business process outsourcing company workforce management personnel / The Health Sciences Journal

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION@#Due to COVID-19 pandemic, many have shifted into working at home which led to physical inactivity. This may cause musculoskeletal discomfort, chronic disease, muscle atrophy and spinal imbalance due to improper and prolonged sitting posture. Since mobile devices are relatively available for most of the office workers, there were still a lack of evidence-based mobile applications that can counteract the inactivity through exercises, which led to the researchers to create an application called SitMate that consists of evidence-based exercises which aimed to prevent musculoskeletal discomfort among a business process outsourcing company Workforce Management Personnel (BPO-WMP).@*METHODS@#Eleven participants (18-40 years old) full-time, work-from-home BPO-WMP were randomized into Treatment Group(TG)(n=6) and Control Group (CG)(n=5). The TG received one month intervention with the use of SitMate Application containing relaxation exercises, range of motion exercises and stretching exercises, and notifications for postural correction while the CG continued their usual working schedule.@*RESULTS@#There were no significant differences between two groups on all body parts that were measured using the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire, and no significant differences in the intragroup pre-test and post-test scores on all body parts between TG and CG. For the intra-group post-test of the TG, there were noted improvements on the hip/buttock, right shoulder, upper back (median = 0) and right wrist (median = 1.5). There was also a noted increase in discomfort on the neck (median = 1.5) and lower back (median = 3). For the post-test of the CG, there were noted improvements on the right shoulder, right wrist (median = 0) and lower back (median = 1.5).@*CONCLUSION@#This study has shown that the SitMate application does not effectively reduce the prolonged sitting-related discomfort among the personnel after 1 month of intervention.