## 3 Results

Table 3: Current number of medications used for MSD treatment among Ds and DAs in Germany in \(n\) (%). In the case of the DAs, medication was most frequently taken on a weekly basis (between 50.0% and 28.6%) for MSDs of the shoulder, hand, upper back, lower back and hip. For MSDs of the neck, medication was most frequently taken on a monthly or weekly basis (29.6% each). The most frequent treatment for the elbow (36.4%) and ankle (40.0%) was \"as needed\" and for the knee, daily (41.7%). The difference between the occupational groups with regard to the frequency of taking medication for MSDs was significant only for the neck (\(p\) = 0.01). After a Bonferroni-Holm correction, this significance did not hold. Tables 5 and 6 summarize the most frequent pain medication choices taken by the Ds and DAs. The most common choice of pain medication against all MSDs listed was ibuprofen for both Ds and DAs (44.0-17.6% versus 100.0-37.9%, respectively), as seen in Table 4. Systemic diclofenac was the second most common treatment for Ds and DAs (20.0-5.9% versus 20.2-7.2%, respectively), except for MSDs of DAs at the elbow and hand, whose second most common treatment was topical diclofenac (16.7% and 13.8%, respectively). Table 6 lists other co-analgesics that are also used for analgesia but primarily are used for treating other conditions [29]. Table 6 shows that the most commonly used immunosuppression was MTX (up to 20.0% of Ds; up to 16.7% of DAs) followed by systemic cortisone (up to 11.8% of Ds; up to 13.8% of DAs). The most commonly used muscle relaxant was ortoton (up to 12.0% of Ds; up to 6.4% of DAs). Other injections were reported by up to 20.0% of Ds and up to 16.7% of DAs. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Area of MSDs**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Frequency**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Aes Needed**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Rarely**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Others**} \\ \cline{2-2} \cline{5-6}  & **Monthly** & & & & & \\ \hline Neck & & & & & & \\ Ds \({}^{*}\) & 10 (17.2) & 10 (17.2) & 6 (10.3) & 12 (20.7) & 11(19.0) & 9 (15.5) \\ Das \({}^{*}\) & 29 (29.6) & 29 (29.6) & 12 (12.2) & 18 (18.4) & 3 (3.1) & 7 (7.1) \\ \hline Shoulder & & & & & & \\ Ds & 10 (28.6) & 5 (14.3) & 5 (14.3) & 6 (17.1) & 3 (8.6) & 6 (17.1) \\ DAs & 10 (20.4) & 15 (30.6) & 7 (14.3) & 13 (26.5) & 1 (2.0) & 3 (6.1) \\ \hline Elbow & & & & & & \\ Ds & 2 (16.7) & 3 (25.0) & 1 (8.3) & 1 (8.3) & 3 (25.0) & 2 (16.7) \\ DAs & 2 (18.2) & 3 (27.3) & 1 (9.1) & 4 (36.4) & - & 1 (9.1) \\ \hline Hand & & & & & & \\ Ds & 1 (7.7) & 2 (15.4) & 4 (30.8) & - & 2 (15.4) & 4 (30.8) \\ DAs & 4 (23.5) & 5 (29.4) & 3 (17.6) & 5 (29.4) & - & - \\ \hline Upper back & & & & & & \\ Ds & 6 (31.6) & 2 (10.5) & 2 (10.5) & 2 (10.5) & 3 (15.8) & 4 (20.1) \\ DAs & 8 (21.1) & 11 (28.9) & 5 (13.2) & 10 (26.3) & - & 4 (10.5) \\ \hline Lower back & & & & & & \\ Ds & 8 (17.4) & 5 (10.9) & 11 (23.9) & 11 (23.9) & 4 (8.7) & 7 (15.2) \\ DAs & 11 (19.6) & 16 (28.6) & 14 (25.0) & 10 (17.9) & 2 (3.6) & 3 (5.4) \\ \hline Hip & & & & & & \\ Ds & - & 1 (16.7) & 2 (33.3) & 2 (33.3) & 1(16.7) & - \\ DAs & 1 (10.0) & 5 (50.0) & 1 (10.0) & 2 (20.0) & - & 3 (30.0) \\ \hline Knee & & & & & & \\ Ds & 1 (16.7) & 1 (16.7) & 1 (16.7) & - & - & 3 (50.0) \\ DAs & 4 (33.3) & 3 (25.0) & 5 (41.7) & 2 (16.7) & 2 (16.7) & 1 (8.3) \\ \hline Ankle & & & & & & \\ Ds & - & - & - & 1 (33.3) & - & 2 (66.7) \\ DAs & 1 (20.0) & 1 (20.0) & - & 2 (40.0) & 1 (20.0) & - \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{*}\)Ohers included “a few times a week, “a few times a month, “temporarily daily”, “once or twice”, “irregular” or “not at the moment. Significant differences (Chi-Quadrat-Test) are marked with an asterisk (“at \(p\) = 0.01).  
\end{table} 
Table 4: Frequency of medication use for MSDs among Ds and DAs in Germany in \(n\) (%).