Background: People working at sea show a marked presence of musculoskeletal pain as well as an important coexistence of pain in diverse anatomical regions, which is believed to have a harmful effect on the quality of life related to foot health. The aim is to describe and compare the impact in a sample of sea workers and people who work on the ground in the light of the scores obtained with regard foot health and health in general.
Methods: A sample of 94 participants of a mean age of 41.29 ± 10.603 came to a health centre where self-reported data were registered, informants' professional activity was determined and the scores obtained were compared in the Foot Health Status Questionnaire.
Results: The sea workers group showed a worse quality of life related to health in general and to foot health specifically. Differences between the two groups were evaluated by means of a t-test for independent samples, showing statistical significance (P < 0.05) for the dimensions of pain and general health related to the foot.
Conclusions: People working at sea present a negative impact on the quality of life related to foot health, which appears to be associated with the presence of deformities, sprains, plantar warts and fungus.
Keywords: Foot; Healthy worker effect; Quality of life; Surveillance of the workers health.
Copyright © 2015 Tissue Viability Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.