Cleaning work spans hotel housekeeping, hospitals, domestic service and non-domestic commercial settings, so health statistics vary by job, country, case definition and measurement period. The available evidence covers pain, respiratory and skin symptoms, injuries, screening, reporting and work-related job loss.
Key Cleaning Worker Health Statistics
The following figures summarize the most broadly useful findings:
- 53.9% of hotel housekeepers and cleaners had low-back musculoskeletal disorders in a meta-analysis published in 2023 covering nine pooled-study populations.
- 41.4% of hotel housekeepers and cleaners had shoulder disorders in the 2023 pooled estimate.
- 40.1% of hotel housekeepers and cleaners had wrist or hand disorders in the 2023 pooled estimate.
- Brazilian domestics and cleaners reported low-back pain at 19.1% in 2013 in the National Health Survey.
- Brazilian domestics and cleaners reported low-back pain at 20.6% in 2019 in the National Health Survey.
- Occupational cleaners had a pooled asthma risk 50% higher than the comparison population in a 2021 meta-analysis.
- Occupational cleaners had a pooled COPD risk 43% higher than the comparison population in the 2021 respiratory-health meta-analysis.
- 11% of 341 non-domestic cleaners in metropolitan São Paulo reported asthma symptoms or asthma history under the study definition before the study was published in 2007.
- 35% of non-domestic cleaners in metropolitan São Paulo reported rhinitis in the same study.
- Professional cleaners had occupational contact-dermatitis prevalence ranging from 2.2% to 30.1% across a 2023 review.
- 35.9 nonfatal injuries occurred per 100 full-time-equivalent cleaners in Texas hospital occupational-health records.
- 19.6% of Turkish university-hospital cleaners reported an occupational accident in the previous year in a study published in 2024.
- 83.1% of Turkish university-hospital cleaners reported frequent bending at work in the 2024 cross-sectional study.
- 98.4% of Turkish university-hospital cleaners reported never having periodic medical examinations in the 2024 study.
- Annual ill-health-related job-loss incidence was 16.7 per 1,000 cleaners in France during 2016–2019 follow-up.
- Musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 57.7% of reported unfitness causes among French cleaners during 2016–2019 follow-up.
- Low-back pain was associated with moderately severe depressive symptoms at prevalence ratio 2.27 among Brazilian domestics and cleaners in 2013 and 2019 survey analysis.
- Workers aged 40–59 had a prevalence ratio of 1.79 for musculoskeletal disorders among Brazilian cleaners in adjusted survey analysis from 2013 and 2019.
Contents
- Key Cleaning Worker Health Statistics
- Cleaning Worker Musculoskeletal Pain and Disorder Statistics
- Cleaning Worker Respiratory Health and Asthma Risk Data
- Cleaning Worker Skin Health and Contact Dermatitis Statistics
- Cleaning Worker Accidents, Injuries and Ergonomic Exposures
- Cleaning Worker Health Screening, Reporting and Work-Loss Statistics
- Cleaning Worker Health Statistics by Occupation, Tenure and Demographics
Cleaning Worker Musculoskeletal Pain and Disorder Statistics
Musculoskeletal findings differ sharply by population and definition. A pooled estimate for hotel housekeepers and cleaners is not directly interchangeable with a national survey measure of low-back pain or a hospital-specific report of pain during the prior year.
| Population and period | Measure | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel housekeepers and cleaners, review published 2023 | Low-back musculoskeletal disorder prevalence | 53.9% |
| Hotel housekeepers and cleaners, review published 2023 | Shoulder disorder prevalence | 41.4% |
| Hotel housekeepers and cleaners, review published 2023 | Wrist/hand disorder prevalence | 40.1% |
| Brazilian domestics and cleaners, 2013 | Low-back pain prevalence | 19.1% |
| Brazilian domestics and cleaners, 2019 | Low-back pain prevalence | 20.6% |
The hotel-housekeeper review included 19 studies from international literature. Its estimates were random-effects pooled results from cross-sectional and heterogeneous studies; the shoulder estimate had a 95% confidence interval of 27.1%–55.8%, while the wrist/hand estimate had a 95% confidence interval of 24.5%–55.7% (systematic review of hotel housekeepers and cleaners).
In Brazil, work-related musculoskeletal disorder prevalence was 2.2% in 2013 and 2.4% in 2019 among domestics and cleaners. These figures use a different survey case definition from anatomical low-back pain, so they should not be read as contradictory versions of the same measure (Brazilian National Health Survey analysis).
A Turkish university-hospital study published in 2024 found that 42.0% of cleaning workers reported low-back pain in the prior year, while 29.5% reported shoulder pain and 28.8% reported knee pain. It was a single-hospital cross-sectional survey, so the results describe that workforce rather than all hospital cleaners (Turkish hospital cleaning-worker study).
Cleaning Worker Respiratory Health and Asthma Risk Data
The respiratory evidence points to elevated risks in occupational cleaners, but the main review cautioned that the underlying studies did not quantitatively assess cleaning-product exposure.
| Respiratory outcome | Population and period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Asthma | Occupational cleaners, 2021 meta-analysis | Pooled RR 1.50 |
| COPD | Occupational cleaners, 2021 meta-analysis | Pooled RR 1.43 |
| Asthma symptoms or history | 341 non-domestic cleaners, São Paulo, study before 2007 publication | 11% |
| Rhinitis | Non-domestic cleaners, São Paulo, study before 2007 publication | 35% |
The asthma pooled relative risk was 1.50, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.44–1.56. The pooled COPD relative risk was 1.43, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.31–1.56; both estimates came from observational evidence (respiratory-health systematic review and meta-analysis).
That review selected 39 studies from 1,124 retrieved articles. The evidence-base count describes the review process, not the number of affected workers or the prevalence of respiratory disease.
Among non-domestic cleaners in metropolitan São Paulo, work-related asthma or rhinitis had an odds ratio of 1.71 for workers employed more than 6.5 years and 1.28 for those employed 3–6.5 years, compared with the study’s reference tenure group. Atopy was associated with asthma at odds ratio 2.91 and rhinitis at odds ratio 2.06, while women had rhinitis odds ratio 2.07 versus men; these are adjusted associations from a cross-sectional study, not causal effects (São Paulo cleaner respiratory-symptom study).
Cleaning Worker Skin Health and Contact Dermatitis Statistics
Skin-health estimates also depend on the population sampled and on whether the outcome is clinically assessed dermatitis or a questionnaire-reported rash.
A 2023 systematic review covering professional cleaners found occupational contact-dermatitis prevalence ranging from 2.2% to 30.1% across 39 studies representing more than 109,000 participants. The range reflects differing populations and case definitions, so it is not a single universal prevalence estimate (professional-cleaner contact-dermatitis review).
In a Canadian questionnaire study published in 2009, 21% of male professional indoor cleaners reported a rash during the previous 12 months, compared with 11% of male other building workers. Questionnaire response was 39% among professional cleaners and 47% among other building workers, and the different response rates may affect comparisons (Canadian professional-cleaner symptoms study).
Cleaners with a rash were more likely to report work-related asthma symptoms than cleaners without a rash, with p<0.001 in that Canadian study. The abstract reported the statistical association but not its effect size.
Cleaning Worker Accidents, Injuries and Ergonomic Exposures
Hospital cleaning work combines injury risks with repeated physical postures and movements. Rates from a Texas hospital and a Turkish university hospital use different denominators and designs.
| Measure | Population and period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Nonfatal injuries | Texas hospital cleaners, occupational-health records | 35.9 per 100 FTE |
| Nonfatal injuries | Other Texas hospital employees | 13.64 per 100 FTE |
| Slips, trips and falls | Texas hospital cleaners | 4.39 per 100 FTE |
| Material-handling injuries | Texas hospital cleaners | 2.37 per 100 FTE |
The Texas hospital rate for cleaners was 35.9 nonfatal injuries per 100 full-time-equivalent cleaners, compared with 13.64 per 100 FTE for other hospital employees. Slips, trips and falls contributed 4.39 per 100 FTE, and material-handling injuries contributed 2.37 per 100 FTE; these were single-hospital record-based rates (Texas hospital housekeeping injury study).
In the Turkish hospital study, 19.6% of cleaners reported an occupational accident during the previous year. Among those reporting an accident, 24.4% did not report it and 30.2% were absent from work, making both percentages conditional on having reported an accident.
The same Turkish workforce reported frequent bending at 83.1%, repeating the same movement at 82.2% and standing for a long time at 73.2%. These were self-reported ergonomic exposures rather than instrument-measured posture or force (Turkish hospital cleaning-worker study).
Cleaning Worker Health Screening, Reporting and Work-Loss Statistics
Access to examinations and the consequences of ill health are separate dimensions of worker health. A low screening percentage does not itself measure disease prevalence, while job-loss incidence reflects a selected occupational-health follow-up population.
In the Turkish university-hospital study, 36.8% of cleaners reported no pre-employment examination and 98.4% reported never undergoing periodic medical examinations. These figures were self-reported and came from a single hospital (Turkish hospital cleaning-worker study).
In Montpellier, France, cleaners had annual ill-health-related job-loss incidence of 16.7 per 1,000 workers per year during 2016–2019 follow-up, with a 95% confidence interval of 15.6–17.8. The corresponding incidence in the overall comparison worker population was 7.3 per 1,000, with a 95% confidence interval of 7.1–7.6, and job loss was 2.3 times as frequent among cleaners (French cleaner job-loss follow-up study).
Among reported unfitness causes in the French cleaner cohort, musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 57.7% and mental disorders also accounted for 57.7%. These are cause distributions among medically unfit cases, not percentages of all cleaners.
Schizophrenia was over-represented among French cleaners at relative risk 8.11 compared with reference workers, while cardiovascular disease had relative risk 6.55. The cohort included 13,089 cleaners among 118,033 workers under follow-up, and the occupational-health-service population was not all French cleaners.
Cleaning Worker Health Statistics by Occupation, Tenure and Demographics
The studies show why occupation labels must remain explicit. Hotel housekeepers, hospital cleaners, domestic workers, non-domestic commercial cleaners and cleaners identified through occupational-health services do not represent one interchangeable population.
Among Brazilian domestics and cleaners, low-back pain was associated with moderately severe depressive symptoms at prevalence ratio 2.27 and with severe depressive symptoms at prevalence ratio 2.32. These were adjusted cross-sectional associations from the 2013 and 2019 National Health Survey analyses, not causal estimates (Brazilian National Health Survey analysis).
Women in the Brazilian population had 2.50 times the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders compared with men in adjusted analysis. Ages 40–59 among Brazilian cleaners were associated with musculoskeletal disorders at prevalence ratio 1.79, while domestics had lower musculoskeletal-disorder prevalence than other cleaners at prevalence ratio 0.53; the categories and reference groups were study-specific.
The 2023–2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics release reported 8.3 coronavirus-related days-away-from-work cases per 10,000 FTE in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations in private industry. Healthcare support occupations had 32.4 such cases per 10,000 FTE in the same period, but that is a comparator occupation rather than a cleaning-only measure (BLS Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, 2023–2024).
The BLS figures are employer-reported nonfatal cases using full-time-equivalent denominators and measure coronavirus-specific days-away-from-work cases, not total illness among cleaning workers. The release also notes a 2023–2024 OIICS revision that creates a series break, so these estimates should not be treated as a seamless trend with earlier series.