Investigating the Effectiveness of a Workplace Musculoskeletal Disorders Management Program
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- Three out of five workers in the European Union experience musculoskeletal discomfort, while one in five workers experienced chronic pain and discomfort in the lower back or neck in the past year.
- The most common musculoskeletal complaints are pain in the lower back, upper limbs, and neck, while discomfort in the lower limbs is less frequent.
- Sixty percent (60%) of workers with more than one occupational disease report that musculoskeletal problems are the most burdensome.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Design
2.2. Measurements
- the Standardised Nordic questionnaire for the analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms, to evaluate the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain;
- the SF36 Health Survey, to evaluate health status;
- the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire, to capture absenteeism and presenteeism due to health issues.
- Percentage of work time missed due to health, for those currently employed.
- Percentage of impairment while working due to health, for those currently employed and who worked in the past seven days.
- Overall work impairment due to health, for those currently employed.
- Percentage of activity impairment due to health, for all respondents. For those who lost their jobs and did not actually work in the past seven days, the percentage of overall work impairment due to health will be equal to the percentage of work time missed due to health.
2.3. Ethical Considerations
2.4. Statistical Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Demographic and Job Characteristics
3.2. Study Measures
3.2.1. Absenteeism/Presenteeism
3.2.2. SF36
3.2.3. Self-Reported MSDs
4. Discussion
Limitations of the Study
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Time Phase | Phase 0 | Phase 1 | Phase 2 (One Month Post Intervention) | Phase 3 (4 Months Post Intervention) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Early intervention group | Baseline | Intervention | Early evaluation | Late evaluation |
Late intervention group | Baseline 1 | No intervention | Baseline 2 and intervention | Late evaluation |
Categorical Variables | Categories | Early Intervention Group (n = 143) | Late Intervention Group (n = 104) | p-Value a | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ν | % | Ν | % | |||
Gender | Male | 82 | 57.3 | 51 | 49 | 0.196 |
Female | 61 | 42.7 | 53 | 51 | ||
Marital status | Single | 85 | 59.4 | 67 | 64.4 | 0.113 |
Married | 47 | 32.9 | 36 | 34.6 | ||
Divorced | 9 | 6.3 | 1 | 1 | ||
Other | 0 | 0 | ||||
Education level | High school graduate | 15 | 10.5 | 8 | 7.7 | 0.313 |
College/university graduate | 77 | 53.8 | 66 | 63.5 | ||
Postgraduate/Doctorate | 51 | 35.7 | 30 | 28.8 |
Continuous Variables Categories | Early Intervention Group (n = 143) | Late Intervention Group (n = 104) | p-Value c | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean | Standard Deviation | Mean | Standard Deviation | ||
Age | 37.41 | 9.722 | 35.95 | 9.243 | 0.235 |
Total years of work experience | 13.32 | 9.234 | 11.88 | 8.579 | 0.212 |
Years of experience in the current position b | 9.07 | 8.164 | 8.33 | 10.335 | 0.529 |
Hours of computer use per day b | 9.58 | 2.183 | 9.64 | 1.723 | 0.805 |
Weekly working hours b | 42.92 | 5.58 | 42.32 | 4.158 | 0.351 |
Body weight b | 77.78 | 18.213 | 74.70 | 17.248 | 0.182 |
Height b | 174.1 | 9.196 | 172.38 | 9.178 | 0.147 |
BMI (Body Mass Index) b | 25.44 | 4.45 | 24.95 | 4.4 | 0.397 |
Groups | Baseline for Early Intervention Group/Baseline 1 for Late Intervention Group (Mean) | Early Evaluation for Intervention Group/Baseline 1 for Late Intervention Group (Mean) | Late Evaluation for Early and Late Intervention Groups (Mean) | p-Value between Baseline and Early Evaluation for Early Intervention Group/p-Value between Baseline 1 and Late Evaluation for Late Intervention Group a | p-Value between Baseline and Late Evaluation for Early Intervention Group/p-Value between Baseline 1 and Late Evaluation for Late Intervention Group a | p-Value between Early Evaluation and Late Evaluation for Early Intervention Group/p-Value between baseline 2 and Late Evaluation for Late Intervention Group a | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Early intervention group | Overall Physical Health | 78.06 | 80.96 | 81.19 | 0.007 | 0.013 | 0.643 |
Overall Mental Health | 67.33 | 68.79 | 67.85 | 0.012 | 0.667 | 0.076 | |
Late intervention group | Overall Physical Health | 80.12 | 80.34 | 80.54 | 0.813 | 0.779 | 0.878 |
Overall Mental Health | 69.27 | 71.29 | 70.09 | 0.008 | 0.569 | 0.393 |
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Grana, E.; Galanis, P.; Velonakis, E.; Tziaferi, S.; Sourtzi, P. Investigating the Effectiveness of a Workplace Musculoskeletal Disorders Management Program. Healthcare 2024, 12, 1815. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12181815
Grana E, Galanis P, Velonakis E, Tziaferi S, Sourtzi P. Investigating the Effectiveness of a Workplace Musculoskeletal Disorders Management Program. Healthcare. 2024; 12(18):1815. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12181815
Chicago/Turabian StyleGrana, Eleni, Petros Galanis, Emmanuel Velonakis, Styliani Tziaferi, and Panayota Sourtzi. 2024. "Investigating the Effectiveness of a Workplace Musculoskeletal Disorders Management Program" Healthcare 12, no. 18: 1815. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12181815