A systematic review and meta-analysis of musculoskeletal disorders among firefighters.

Due to the nature of their job, firefighters face many ergonomic risk factors and are exposed to several musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the prevalence of MSDs among firefighters. This study was conducted based on preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The literature search was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, SID, ISC and Google Scholar without applying a time limitation until the end of July 2022. The random effects model was used for meta-analysis, and the I The primary literature searches in the databases identified 1,291 articles, 26 of which were entered the meta-analysis stage after screening, study selection, and quality assessment, including 36,342 firefighters. Based on the results of a meta-analysis, the overall prevalence of MSDs among firefighters was 46.39% (95% CI: 32.45-60.32, I Considering the relatively high prevalence of MSDs among firefighters and their higher exposition to specific job-related risk factors of MSDs compared to other professions, it is suggested to provide firefighters with appropriate training, implement ergonomic interventions, and regularly screen them to reduce MSDs.

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.