Workers worldwide experience a range of occupational musculoskeletal disorders that affect both the functionality of many parts of their body and their overall performance. Physiotherapists provide counseling and treatment programs during work. Recently, physiotherapy interventions have been introduced during work breaks. This study aimed to investigate the value of different types of workplace-based exercise programs administered during work breaks and compare them with counseling methods. Electronic searches were performed in relevant databases by keywords such as: workplace, musculoskeletal disorders, sedentary, standing, employees, micro-breaks, exercise interventions, and ergonomics. Initially, 706 articles were identified. An article sorting procedure was employed by two independent researchers, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria set for this study, and after the removal of non-relevant articles (n = 391) or duplicates (n = 300), 15 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) remained for qualitative analysis. The methodological quality of the 13 RCTs was performed using the PEDro scale. No risk of bias evaluation was made. The findings suggested that active micro-breaks that contained various exercise programs including stretching, strengthening, torso stabilization, and ergonomic interventions were more beneficial than passive micro-breaks, reducing pain and the feeling of fatigue and increasing employees’ mood. It is concluded that micro-breaks are beneficial to employees with either orthostatic or sedentary work.

Office workers often experience occupational musculoskeletal disorders. The aim of the current systematic review was to investigate the effectiveness of workplace exercise intervention on the oldest age group of office workers who have been reported in the literature so far, in terms of workability and well-being. Randomized Controlled Trials were used and the methodological guidelines of PRISMA were followed. The keywords used were: office workers, older, exercise intervention, workplace, microbreaks, workability and well-being. The databases searched were: PubMed, PEDro, ResearchGate, CINAHL, PsychINFO and Science Direct. PROSPERO ID: CRD42022329656. Five studies (total number of participants: 1190, mean age: 46,4) met the inclu-sion criteria. Their quality was deemed to be moderate to high, according to PEDro and MPSER scales. Workplace interventions of gradually increased strengthening and moderate stretching exercises, isometric positioning and postural reminders, either with or without supervision, result in decreasing musculoskeletal pain, disability, sick-leave from work and in the improvement of quality of life and physical activity of the middle-aged office workers, without negative impact on their workability. Despite the worldwide aging workforce, there is a knowledge gap due to research absence in the field of microbreak exercise interventions in the group of older office workers.