#0115 Association between comprehensive workstation and neck and upper-limb pain among office worker
Workstations Must Be Comprehensively Analyzed to Understand Pain Risks for Office Workers
For many workers today, workstations consist of a computer with a mouse, a keyboard, and, potentially, an armrest. Working at such a workstation for prolonged periods can place stress on the musculoskeletal and can cause the worker to experience musculoskeletal problems, including pain affecting the neck and upper limbs. Occupational health professionals have therefore turned their attention to the issue of how best to design ergonomic computer workstations that reduce the risk of musculoskeletal problems for office workers. One intriguing concept in this area is that of the “comprehensive workstation,” a term that describes the idea of considering the keyboard, mouse, monitor, and armrest comprehensively as components of a workstation environment rather than considering each item in isolation from the others.
To shed light on the relationship between the comprehensive workstation and neck and upper-limb pain in office workers, we conducted a study on 307 office workers from two Japanese companies. We used a 17-item checklist to comprehensively evaluate each worker’s workstation, and we assigned a rating of “adequate” or “inadequate” to each checklist item. We also asked the workers to report pain sensations in the neck, shoulder, elbow, and wrist and rate the intensities on a numeric scale.
Overall, 47% of the workers had neck pain, 50% had shoulder pain, 7.2% had elbow pain, and 13% had wrist pain. Furthermore, the greater the number of workstation items rated as inadequate, the greater the likelihood of a worker having elbow pain and wrist pain. However, the analyses revealed no such relationship between workstation adequacy and pain in the neck or shoulder.
In conclusion, these analyses provide evidence for a relationship between the number of workstation inadequacies and the risk of developing elbow pain and wrist pain. These findings support the validity of the comprehensive workstation as a useful mode of thought when investigating occupational health factors affecting office workers.
Link to the original journal article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1348-9585.12194
Title of the paper:
Association between comprehensive workstation and neck and upper-limb pain among office worker
Authors:
Kiyomasa Nakatsuka, Yamato Tsuboi, Maho Okumura, Shunsuke Murata, Tsunenori Isa, Rika Kawaharada, Naoka Matsuda, Kazuaki Uchida, Kana Horibe, Masahumi Kogaki, and Rei Ono
