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Dear Colleagues,

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are a major public health problem worldwide. They are responsible for work absences, disability, as well as significant direct and indirect costs. They affect work habits and quality, as well as the quality of life and wellbeing of workers; all work environments are affected. Numerous factors contribute to and reinforce the presence of musculoskeletal disorders and their associated symptoms: working in awkward postures, repetition of the same movements, handling heavy loads, poor ergonomics, exposed environments, psychosocial context, or the fact that musculoskeletal disorders can also result from hereditary or congenital pathological processes. In this context, understanding the mechanisms that lead to the onset of musculoskeletal disorders is a major multidisciplinary scientific challenge. We welcome any research that can help us understand and control the causes and impact of musculoskeletal disorders on quality of life.

Thus, this Special Issue gives priority to research focused on improving the prevention and assessment of musculoskeletal disorder risks independently of the work environment. These may take into account new working conditions, such as flexible working, teleworking, and new forms of jobs. We welcome contributions on the above topics in any of the following forms: reliability studies, validity studies, correlative studies, observational studies, study protocols, longitudinal studies, case studies, etc., as well as systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Prof. Dr. Philippe Gorce
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders
Musculoskeletal diseases
Ergonomic risk assessment
Body areas
Occupational risk
Prevention
Pain
Muscle biomechanics
Occupational health
Occupational ergonomics
Quality of life

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 4618 KiB

Open AccessArticle

by Julien Jacquier-Bret and Philippe Gorce

Healthcare 2024, 12(1), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12010118 - 4 Jan 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 834

Abstract

Background: Complete decongestive therapy is the standard treatment for lymphedema. Manual lymphatic drainage and short-stretch multilayer compression bandaging are two daily stages of complete decongestive therapy during which physiotherapists work with patients. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the risks of musculoskeletal disorders to which physiotherapists are exposed during these two phases. Method: Five physiotherapists performed five 20 min manual lymphatic drainages, followed by the compression bandaging phase. From the video recordings, 8477 postures defined by 13 joint angles were grouped into clusters using hierarchical cluster analysis. The risk of musculoskeletal disorders in physiotherapists’ postures was assessed using ergonomic tools. Results: Seven clusters, called generic postures (GP), were identified and defined throughout the mean joint angle values and standard deviation. Four seated GPs were found for the drainage phase, and three standing GPs were identified for the bandaging phase. This phase corresponded to a quarter of the total duration. The GP’s ergonomic scores ranged from 4.51 to 5.63 and from 5.08 to 7.12, respectively, for the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). GP1, GP3, and GP4 presented the highest ergonomic scores (RULA scores: 5.27 to 5.63; REBA scores: 6.25 to 7.12). The most affected areas were the neck (flexion > 20° for all GPs), trunk (flexion between 25 and 30° for GP2, and GP7 during the bandaging phase and GP4 during the drainage phase), and shoulder (flexion and abduction >20° for all GPs except GP5). Conclusions: These results highlighted that the two complete decongestive therapy phases could be described as a combination of GP. Ergonomic assessment showed that compression bandaging as well as drainage phases expose physiotherapists to moderate musculoskeletal disorder risks that require “further investigation and change soon”. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue News Trends in Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders and Diseases)

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10 pages, 701 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Empirical Suitability of Scoring Systems of Observational Techniques for Repetitive Movements Based on Discomfort

by Dohyung Kee

Healthcare 2023, 11(24), 3157; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11243157 - 13 Dec 2023

Viewed by 561

Abstract

This study empirically investigated the effects of repetitive movements of body parts through an experiment, and evaluated the suitability of the scoring systems of the existing observational methods for repetitive movements, based on the experimental results. Eighteen healthy college students participated in the experiment to assess discomfort, wherein joint movement, its repetition, and external load were used as independent variables. Postural loads for 16 postures used in the experiment were assessed using rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) and loading on the entire body assessment (LEBA). Three independent variables, joint motion, its repetition, and external load, as well as the interaction between motion repetition and external load, had significant effects on discomfort. Joint motion and external load significantly affected the RULA grand score, whereas all three independent variables affected the LEBA score. This finding may indicate that LEBA more accurately reflects the effect of repetitive body part movements. Additionally, the scoring systems for repetitive back motions by quick exposure check (QEC) and for repetitive wrist motions via a risk assessment and management tool for manual handling proactively II (RAMP II) may be reasonable based on the results of this study. The findings of this study can be used as reference information for better evaluation of postural loads assessed using the existing observational techniques, and as useful baseline data for the development of a new observational method to accurately assess stress caused by repetitive movements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue News Trends in Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders and Diseases)

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