Psychosocial factors at work and musculoskeletal disease.

Abstract

BONGERS PM, de WINTER CR, KOMPIER MAJ, HILDEBRANDT VH. Psychosocial factors at work and musculoskeletal disease. Scand J Work Environ Health 1993; 19:297-312. The objective of this review is to establish whether the epidemiologic literature presents evidence of an association between psychosocial work factors and musculoskeletal disease. In a hypothetical model it is suggested that individual characteristics and stress symptoms can modify this relationship. The reviewed studies do not present conclusive evidence due to high correlations between psychosocial factors and physical load and to difficulties in measuring dependent and independent variables. Nevertheless, it is concluded that monotonous work, high perceived work load, and time pressure are related to musculoskeletal symptoms. The data also suggest that low control on the job and lack of social support by colleagues are positively associated with musculoskeletal disease. Perceived stress may be an intermediary in this process. In addition, stress symptoms are often associated with musculoskeletal disease, and some studies indicate that stress symptoms contribute to the development of this disease.

Physical activity and low back pain: a systematic review of recent literature

“…An estimation of physical demands by self-reports has been criticised as being inaccurate, especially for the more complex load-bearing activities carried out by employees [67]. Otherwise, it has been shown that workload and occupational physical activity can be reliably assessed by questionnaires and that questionnaires can classify groups with heterogeneous occupational tasks [68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76].…”

“…It is generally agreed that the aetiology of back pain is multifactorial [74] and that physical load only partially explains the prevalence of back pain [75]. There is robust evidence that psychological factors are related to future episodes of back pain and its related disability [76][77][78]. Three studies [29,31,53] demonstrated in a multidisciplinary approach that not mechanical factors alone but a combination of sociodemographic, work-related and psychosocial factors was important in predicting new onsets of LBP.…”

Can high psychological job demands, low decision latitude, and high job strain predict disability pensions? A 12-year follow-up of middle-aged Swedish workers

“…One such factor may involve work-related stress, which has been connected to the development of musculoskeletal (Bongers et al 1993;Östergren et al 2005), psychiatric (Stansfeld and Candy 2006) and cardiovascular (Belkic et al 2004;Kivimäki et al 2006) disease. The three also comprise the most common diagnostic groups that account for retirement on grounds of ill health (Alexanderson and Norlund 2004).…”

Working for health? Evidence from systematic reviews on the effects on health and health inequalities of organisational changes to the psychosocial work environment

“…Epidemiological research, especially from the Whitehall studies, has been generally supportive of the hypothesis suggesting a relationship between the psychosocial work environment, work related stress and health status. Specifically, high strain jobs (high demand combined with low control) are associated with adverse health outcomes, including increased risk of heart disease, Karasek et al, 1981;Kuper & Marmot, 2003) musculoskeletal pain, (Bongers et al, 1993) poor mental health, (Stansfeld S, 1999) and sickness absence. (North et al, 1996) High strain jobs are concentrated amongst lower socio-economic groups and thus, the psychosocial work environment is considered an important influence on health inequalities amongst the working population.…”