De Quervain’s tenosynovitis and thumb pain in physiotherapists practicing manual therapy: prevalence and associated factors

<p><strong>Background and Objective:</strong> Manual therapy is a treatment approach by physical therapists where different techniques are applied to patients with hands for rehabilitation purposes. The objective of the study was to find the frequency of De&rsquo;Quervain tenosynovitis and thumb and wrist pain in physical therapists working in different rehabilitation centers in relation to age, body mass index (BMI), and working hours.</p> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> A cross-sectional study was conducted on 135 physical therapists working in different settings in Lahore, Pakistan. Physiotherapists were enrolled by convenience sampling. Data were recorded on a questionnaire form. Finkelstein test was performed to check De Quervain&rsquo;s tenosynovitis. A numeric pain rating scale was sued to measure pain. The data were tested for significance using statistical tests.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> On the dominant hand, 99 (73.3%) physical therapists had no wrist pain, 104 (77%) had no thumb pain, 28 (20.7%) had mild wrist pain and 20 (14.8%) had mild thumb pain. Only 21 (15.6%) physiotherapists were tested positive for Finkelstein (De Quervain&rsquo;s tenosynovitis). Finkelstein test reported 100% negative result on the non-dominant side. There is a negative correlation between thumb pain with the age (r = -0.005), BMI (r = -0.110) and working hours (r = -0.033) of the physical therapists.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong>: The study concluded that the prevalence of De Quervain&rsquo;s tenosynovitis, thumb, and wrist pain was more on the dominant hand than on the non-dominant side. The majority of the physical therapists reported mild to no pain in the wrist and thumb. There is a negative correlation of thumb pain with age, BMI and working hours.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>