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Musculoskeletal complaints on the rise among office workers: study

August 2, 2016
5 Comments
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Olympia, WA – Workers are spending more time on computers and, as a result, the percentage of office workers with musculoskeletal issues is increasing, according to an ergonomics evaluation study conducted by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.

Twenty support services employees, representing bill processing, claims initiation and imaging departments, participated in at least one part of the four-phase study analyzing the effects of typical work activities and postures on musculoskeletal health. Employees were evaluated via survey, observation, computer task sampling and electromyography.

All participants reported experiencing at least one musculoskeletal issue in the previous 12 months, and the percentage of those reporting pain in a certain body part increased in comparison to a similar study conducted in 2009.

Other highlights from the study:

  • 53 percent of workers reported hand/wrist pain, up from 11 percent in 2009 – an increase of nearly 382 percent.
  • 79 percent reported shoulder pain, up from 37 percent in 2009.
  • 32 percent reported elbow/forearm pain, up from 16 percent in 2009.
  • 29 percent reported missing work due to lower back issues.
  • 25 percent missed work due to shoulder issues.

“Further ergonomic improvements may need to go beyond the current office ergonomics guidelines. For example: Ergonomics awareness training, RSIGuard usage, proper employee task assignments in order to balance the workload, and better hand/arm supports and alternative keyboard and mouse use,” researchers said in the report.

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Krista Malaney
August 5, 2016
Is there recent statistical evidence of improved, or not, functionality of employees who have switched to standing desks? It is a trend in the workforce, however I have not seen any published studies on this. I have however heard anecdotal evidence that people are experiencing less pain, i.e. Increased productivity, improved performance, etc.
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Rick Skelley
August 5, 2016
It doesn't appear that the study took into account the increased used of electronic devices when not at work. At least I didn't see any questions about it in the survey. Texting, I-pads, tablets, Kindles, home computers and even video games all use similar or the same motions, muscle groups, etc. as performing computer work on the job. These activities add to the load put on the body in a 24 hour period while reducing the amount of time the body has to recover before starting work the next day. The increases seen may not be all work related.
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David Rose
August 6, 2016
This is very questionable reporting, as I would hardly call this a "study" when the sample size is as low as 13 depending of the phase, yielding statistics that in some cases are based on less than a handful of people. This is more like a survey of workers at one facility. I would hesitate to generalize anything from a "study" with such a small sample size, such a short data collection period ( a few hours to one day, depending on the phase) and little statistical analysis and to me this doesn't merit serious attention Let's see a study of hundreds, perhaps thousands of employees representative of the worker population regarding multiple demographics and varying work experience.
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Eric Stachowiak
August 8, 2016
If the same group was polled , they are 6 years older, of course they are going to be feeling more aches and pains.
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Dina Padilla
August 9, 2016
Had Bill Clinton wrote an executive order for rules on Elizabeth Dole's RSI'S policy earlier in the beginning of his first term rather than wait till the end of his 2nd term, where Bush got rid of it when he took office, many workers who sit and type all day would had better working conditions to stop RSI''s.
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