Guest Editor: Prof Bart Staal, HAN University of Applied Sciences. Senior Researcher, Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen (The Netherlands).
Work participation is generally good for well-being and health, so may possess a therapeutic role. On the other hand, labor can cause and aggravate musculoskeletal symptoms thereby negatively impacting quality of life. Employment activities are often impeded by prevalent musculoskeletal disorders, and people learn to cope with these health problems to engage in active and meaningful lifes.
Therefore, stimulating participation and return to work, eventually with modified duties, is an important ingredient of high-value health care in people with musculoskeletal conditions. The relationship between work and health is however complex and frequently, albeit unintentionally, ignored by health care providers.
This special issue features different contributions on work and health from around the globe ranging from systematic reviews to cohort studies, qualitative studies, and lab-based studies. This collection of articles provides insight into several important aspects of this complex relationship between work and musculoskeletal health, and may be of special interest for researchers, clinicians and policy makers working in this domain.