Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) are highly prevalent in the garment and apparel industry. This industry is characterized by highly repetitive tasks and sewing operation is recognized as the most challenging by the study cohort. Sewing operators are prone to discomfort in lower back and neck regions due to established risk factors such as unsafe posture, poor workstation design, and adverse demographic and temporal factors.

This study aims to investigate the independent predictive power of demographic (Age, Height, Weight) and temporal factors (Work Experience, Daily Working Hours, Rest Between Work) on Neck Pain and Lower Back Pain (LBP) prevalence in a cohort of female sewing operators at a single facility.

Data on symptom prevalence and associated factors were collected using the standardized Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ). A series of multivariate binary logistic regression models were trained to assess the predictive power of the grouped variables.

Overall model fit was extremely low (ranging from 0.005 to 0.045) which indicates that the selected simple factors explain limited variance in WMSD outcomes. Age was the only consistent predictor across both outcomes. Age showed a positive association with LBP (cumulative risk) and a significant inverse association with Neck Pain (OR = 0.944, p = 0.034).

The low explanatory power suggests that the primary determinants of WMSD risk in this population are unobserved factors such as specific postural constraints and the mismatch between anthropometric measures and workstation design. The inverse association of age with Neck Pain is indicative of a healthy worker effect (HWE), where less fit workers have left the highly demanding sewing task. Future research must incorporate objective ergonomic measures.