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Work and musculoskeletal health

Article Collection

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.
 

  1. Nurses in Africa are arguably the most important frontline healthcare workers available in most healthcare facilities, performing a broad range of tasks. Such tasks are considerably presumed in the causation o...

    Authors: Ayele Semachew Kasa, Yinager Workineh, Emiru Ayalew and Worku Animaw Temesgen
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2020 21:310
  2. Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) frequently presents during working age and therefore impacts work participation. Biologic therapies have demonstrated a positive impact on work-related outcomes in clinical tria...

    Authors: Tom Nadin, Dinny Wallis, Christopher R. Holroyd, Stefania D’Angelo, Karen Walker-Bone and Christopher J. Edwards
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2020 21:209
  3. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a specific threshold per lifting movement, the accumulation above which best predicts lumbar disk protrusion, exists or the total lifting load should be consi...

    Authors: Isabella Y.-J. Hung, Tiffany T.-F. Shih, Bang-Bin Chen, Saou-Hsing Liou, Ing-Kang Ho and Yue Leon Guo
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2020 21:169
  4. Musculoskeletal disorders can result from prolonged repetitive and/or forceful movements. Performance of an upper extremity high repetition high force task increases serum pro-inflammatory cytokines and upper ...

    Authors: Tianqi Tenchi Gao Smith, Ann E. Barr-Gillespie, David M. Klyne, Michelle Y. Harris, Mamta Amin, Ryan W. Paul, Geneva E. Cruz, Huaqing Zhao, Sean Gallagher and Mary F. Barbe
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2020 21:57
  5. Objective of the current study was to determine which of thirteen specific psychosocial work factors were related to number of musculoskeletal pain sites (NPS) prospectively over a two-year time span. Furthermore...

    Authors: J. Vleeshouwers, S. Knardahl and J. O. Christensen
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2019 20:595
  6. The aim of this study was to investigate what exposure to work demands, physical and psychosocial, is associated with lower levels of sickness absence among workers with neck or upper back pain in different gr...

    Authors: Stefan Oliv, Ewa Gustafsson, Adnan Noor Baloch, Mats Hagberg and Helena Sandén
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2019 20:529
  7. The global burden of chronic pain is growing with implications for both an ageing workforce and employers. Many obstacles are faced by people with chronic pain in finding employment and returning to work after...

    Authors: Mary Grant, Sophie Rees, Martin Underwood and Robert Froud
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2019 20:486
  8. The aim of this review was to synthesize the evidence on the potential relationship between psychosocial work factors from the Areas of Worklife (AW) model (workload, job control, social support, reward, fairn...

    Authors: Gabriele Buruck, Anne Tomaschek, Johannes Wendsche, Elke Ochsmann and Denise Dörfel
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2019 20:480
  9. Musculoskeletal complaints of arm, neck, and shoulder (CANS) can lead to loss of work productivity. To assess the functional consequences of impairments in work, patient-reported outcomes can be important. The...

    Authors: Annemiek Muskee, Redmar J. Berduszek, Rienk Dekker, Michiel F. Reneman and Corry K. van der Sluis
    Citation: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2019 20:279