A study on prevalence of hand discomfort among the gardeners

Hand discomfort is the most common problem among professional gardeners in their day-to-day gardening activities. Due to the faulty tools used, adopting awkward working posture, repetitive and forceful motions it leads to injuries and discomfort in their hands which also affects their work performance. As hand tools are considered to be an important part of gardeners' occupation, the present study was therefore intended to study the comfort level of gardeners while using various gardening tools and to assess the hand discomfort prevalent among the gardeners. A total sample of 150 male gardeners were selected from educational institutions, community garden and nurseries of Ludhiana city. A self structured interview schedule was developed to study the comfort level of gardeners while using various tools and Cornell Hand Discomfort questionnaire was used to assess the prevalence of hand discomfort among the gardeners. Findings of the study unveiled that comfort level of majority of the respondents while using the gardening hand tools was found to be from moderate to low comfort. There are some tools which they felt were uncomfortable to use because there was increase in pain and discomfort in hands after using these tools. Further, the result of the Cornell Hand Discomfort questionnaire revealed that majority of the respondents experienced slight to moderate level of pain and discomfort in the different hand regions and it interfered in their performance of work. Further, the overall hand discomfort score was recorded maximum in right hand as compared to left hand as right hand is dominant hand for all the gardeners. The frequent movement of hands and prolonged use of improper hand tools without any safety gloves cause hand discomfort which eventually affects their work performance.