Background Complaints of the arm, neck and/or shoulders (CANS) in general and computer-related disorders in particular affect millions of computer office workers in Western developed countries. yr were computed for CANS. Further, the psychometric properties of the Arabic questionnaire were investigated (i.e. factor structure and reliability) and cross-validation was carried out. Results The response rate of the questionnaire was 50-04-4 supplier 88% (n = 250). The one-year prevalence of CANS showed that 53% of the respondents could 50-04-4 supplier be classified as mild instances. The highest incidences were found for neck and glenohumeral joint symptoms (64% and 41% respectively). The analysis of the psychometric properties of the scale resulted in the recognition of 2 factors for each of the 6 domains (i.e. office equipment, computer position, head and body posture, awkward body posture, autonomy, quality of break time, skill discretion, decision expert, time pressure, task complexity, social support, and work flow). The calculation of internal regularity and mix validation offered evidence of reliability and lack of redundancy of items. Summary The prevalence of CANS among the targeted human population seems to correspond strongly with prevalence of CANS in Western developed countries. The Arabic translation of the MUEQ offers acceptable psychometric properties to be used to assess work-related risk factors for the development of CANS among computer office workers in Sudan. Background Complaints of the arm, neck and/or glenohumeral joint (CANS) are defined as “musculoskeletal issues of arm, neck and/or glenohumeral joint not caused by acute stress or by any systemic disease”[1]. CANS affect millions of computer office workers in Western developed countries [2]. However, with the wide use of computer systems in the developing countries [3], the connected musculoskeletal issues are yet to be investigated. CANS are the leading cause of occupational illness in the United States with related absenteeism and medical expenses costing the market between $45 to $54 billion yearly [4]. In the Netherlands, with a working human population of 7 million, annual costs for these musculoskeletal disorders are estimated to be 2.1 billion Euro [4]. However, very limited data is available about the magnitude of this problem in non-Western areas such as Africa [3], and none so far recorded the degree of the problem in Sudan. In general, the clinical, epidemiological and social aspects of CANS remain mainly controversial in the medical literature. According to several evaluations, positive Rabbit Polyclonal to OR2B2 but no conclusive relations have been found between numerous physical and psychosocial risk factors and the event of CANS such as awkward body postures, repetitive motions and psychosocial job characteristics such as high job demands, having low job control 50-04-4 supplier and 50-04-4 supplier low social support [2,4,5]. The human relationships reported in the literature are often derived from cross-sectional studies and mostly from studies carried out in Western countries. In order to investigate causal relations between both physical and psychosocial risk factors and CANS further prospective cohort studies are needed [5]. An example of such a study is the NUDATA study among Danish computer workers, which showed that mouse and keyboard use were associated with an increased risk of carpal tunnel syndrome, elbow and wrist/hand symptoms, forearm pain, and neck and glenohumeral joint symptoms [6-10]. The present study is designed to translate and validate the Dutch musculoskeletal top extremity questionnaire (MUEQ), which can be used to assess the event, nature and several work-related physical and mental risk factors for the development of CANS in the targeted human population The second aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of CANS inside a Sudanese operating human population The psychometric properties of the Dutch version of this questionnaire have been reported in another paper [11]. The psychometric properties of the Arabic translation are reported in the present paper. Methods Study human population and data collection We carried out a cross-sectional study between 04 and May 2005. The study human population consisted of 282 workers who have been invited to participate in the study at 50-04-4 supplier two different work locations (Telecommunication Organization and three banks) in Khartoum,.