Injuries to Physical Education Teachers in Catalonia: Analysis of Ergonomic Perception in their Workplace

Physical education (PE) teachers are exposed to a number of physical hazards in their workplace. Appropriate adaptation of the environment, machines and people will enhance their health. This study was aimed to verify the injuries sustained by PE teachers in Catalonia in their workplace, the anatomical areas injured, their impact on sick leave, risk factors and how ergonomics can impact teaching staff. A descriptive epidemiological study has been used with 769 teachers (men=431, women=337, 1 NR) divided by age, regional service or teaching area, educational stage, qualification and number of hours spent in the school (working day). Data was gathered using a self-administered questionnaire. 43.86% of the sample has sustained an injury in the workplace at some time. The most common injuries are muscular (31.6%) and joint (21.1%). The most affected anatomical areas were knee (18.65%), back (18.35%) and ankle (14.98%). Temperature (12.8%) and noise (12.5%) are the worst rated factors along with recognition of PE as a subject (12.5%). 67.23% of PE teachers have no training in injury prevention, postural habits and ergonomics in the workplace and 89.46% think future training would be useful. It would be constructive to run rehabilitation courses for PE teachers as is already done in other countries together with more training in injury prevention, risk factors and ergonomics in the workplace to ensure better health for these teachers.