RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Neck pain (NP) is associated with high disability rates among healthcare workers. OBJECTIVE: To determine the potential risk factors associated with disability due to NP among healthcare staff working in primary care settings. METHODS: This 30-day prospective cross-sectional study involved a survey of 63 healthcare personnel (55 women and 8 men aged 45.30±12.34 years) of two primary healthcare centers in Serbia, who completed a general questionnaire developed for this purpose along with the Neck Disability Index (NDI), whereby the potential predictors of NP-related disability were assessed using the statistical package SPSS ver. 24. RESULTS: Female healthcare workers achieved a higher score on the NDI scale (Meâ=â8.00, pâ<â0.05), as did older respondents (râ=â0.260, pâ<â0.05), those with longer work experience (râ=â0.323, pâ<â0.05), and those that wear prescription glasses (Meâ=â9.00, pâ<â0.01). Higher NDI scores were also achieved by respondents that suffered from neck pain at the time of the study (Meâ=â12.50, pâ<â0.001), especially if they relied on pain medication (Meâ=â13.00, pâ<â0.05), and topical analgesic creams (Meâ=â12.50, pâ<â0.05) for treating neck pain. CONCLUSION: Female sex, older age, greater work experience, current neck pain, use of pain-relieving medications and creams, and need for prescription glasses to correct vision increase the risk of disability due to pain in the cervical spine among healthcare workers.