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Work‐related musculoskeletal disorders following patient contact represent a major concern for health care workers. Unfortunately, research and prevention have been hampered by difficulties ascertaining true prevalence rates owing to under‐reporting of these injuries. The purpose of this study is to determine the predictors for under‐reporting work‐related musculoskeletal injuries and their reasons.

Multivariate analysis using data obtained in a survey of Veterans Administration employees in the USA was used to determine underreporting patterns among registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nursing assistants. Focus groups among health care workers were conducted at one of the largest Veterans Administration hospitals to determine reasons for under‐reporting.

A significant number of workers reported work‐related musculoskeletal pain, which was not reported as an injury but required rescheduling work such as changing shifts and taking sick leave to recuperate. The findings indicate that older health care workers and those with longer service were less likely to report as were those working in the evening and night shifts. Hispanic workers and personnel who had repetitive injuries were prone to under‐reporting, as were workers in places that lack proper equipment to move and handle patients. Reasons for under‐reporting include the time involved, peer pressure not to report and frustration with workers' compensation procedures.

This study provides insights into under‐reporting musculoskeletal injuries in a major US government organization. The research indicates that current reporting procedures appear to be overtly cumbersome in time and effort. More flexible work assignments are needed to cover staff shortfalls owing to injuries. Health education on the detrimental long‐term effects of ergonomic injuries and the need for prompt attention to injuries should prove useful in improving rates of reporting.

The demanding nature of firefighting exposes firefighters to unprecedented work stress and work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). Even though relationships among work demand, work stress and WMSDs have been examined, the mediating role of work stress in the relationship between work demand and WMSDs requires more attention, particularly among emergency workers. The purpose of this paper is to therefore assess the mediation role of firefighters’ work stress in the pathway of work demand and WMSDs.

A quantitative research design was used. Convenient sampling was employed to select 320 firefighters from the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Data were analyzed using descriptive, correlation and regression.

The findings revealed that work demand and stress significantly affect WMSDs. Also, work demand has a significant positive effect on work stress. It was further found that work stress partially mediates the relationship between work demand and WMSDs.

The usage of cross-sectional data limits the strength of causality and observation of changes within units of observation over time, hence the need to use longitudinal data in future studies.

The novelty of this study lies in the revelation of the influence of stress in the pathway of work demand and WMSDs among emergency professionals, using an African lens.

Over recent years there have been massive changes in working life and workplaces. Across the 1990s there has been a marked increase in reports of work‐related psychological distress in the UK. This paper uses the results of the most recent Occupational Health Decennial supplement (Office for National Statistics (ONS) & Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 2007), based on nationally representative data sources on distress at work, working conditions, sickness absence and psychiatric morbidity to examine the reasons for the apparent increase in work‐related psychological distress.

Carpenters are constantly vulnerable to musculoskeletal disorders. Their work consists of subtasks that promote nonfatal injuries and pains that affect different body segments. The purpose of this study is to examine ergonomic exposures of carpentry subtasks involved in floor framing, how they lead to musculoskeletal injuries, and how preventive and protective interventions around them can be effective.

Using wearable sensors, this study characterizes ergonomic exposures of carpenters by measuring and analyzing body movement data relating to major subtasks in carpentry flooring work. The exposures are assessed using Postural Ergonomic Risk Assessment classification, which is based on tasks involving repetitive subtasks and nonstatic postures.

The findings of this paper suggest severe risk impositions on the trunk, shoulder and elbow as a result of the measuring and marking and cutting out vent locations, as well as in placing and nailing boards into place.

Because of the type and size of wearable sensor used, only results of risk exposures of four body-parts are presented.

This study draws insights on how to benchmark trade-specific measurement of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Safety efforts can be targeted toward these risk areas and subtasks. Specifically, results from these will assist designers and innovators in designing effective and adaptable protective interventions and safety trainings.

Extant studies have failed to provide adequate evidence regarding the relationships between subtasks and musculoskeletal disorders; they have only mimicked construction tasks through laboratory experimental scenarios. This study adds value to the existing literature, in particular by providing insights into hazards associated with floor carpentry subtasks.

The purpose of this paper is to review the prevalence and risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) among healthcare workers (HCWs) in order to ascertain the occupation with the highest susceptibility to WMSD in the health sector. This paper will also review the effective interventions which have been used to prevent WMSDs among HCWs.

This study is a literature review of 11 papers related to the prevalence and risk factors of WMSDs and 12 papers about the interventions being used to prevent WMSDs among HCWs. The papers were retrieved from respectable databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar and E-Thesis.

Nurses belong to the major group of HCWs who had the highest prevalence of WMSDs compared with other health professionals and other hospital workers. Although there are several interventions being commonly used to prevent WMSD risk factors, some interventions were unsuccessful in the prevention of WMSDs in healthcare tasks. Therefore, it is necessary that future research focuses on the tasks of HCWs that are WMSD risk factors and tries to innovate or redesign ergonomic workstations to prevent those risk factors.

The expected benefit of this study is to motivate ergonomists to provide appropriate and innovative interventions to ensure health and safety for nurses and other HCWs.

Acute and chronic pain affects more Americans than heart disease, diabetes, and cancer combined. Conservative estimates suggest the total economic cost of pain in the United States is $600 billion, and more than half of this cost is due to lost productivity, such as absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover. In addition, an escalating opioid epidemic in the United States and abroad spurred by a lack of safe and effective pain management has magnified challenges to address pain in the workforce, particularly the military. Thus, it is imperative to investigate the organizational antecedents and consequences of pain and prescription opioid misuse (POM). This chapter provides a brief introduction to pain processing and the biopsychosocial model of pain, emphasizing the relationship between stress, emotional well-being, and pain in the military workforce. We review personal and organizational risk and protective factors for pain, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, optimism, perceived organizational support, and job strain. Further, we discuss the potential adverse impact of pain on organizational outcomes, the rise of POM in military personnel, and risk factors for POM in civilian and military populations. Lastly, we propose potential organizational interventions to mitigate pain and provide the future directions for work, stress, and pain research.

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading in India and different parts of the world. The outbreak delivered not only the condition of dying from infection but also forced people (especially office workers and students) to perform all working (office work, classes, assignments, etc.) and non-working activities (leisure activities such as social media, gaming, etc.) at home using handheld devices (HHDs). In this situation, HHD usage for longer durations is mainly responsible for work-related health issues. Therefore, the paper aims to explore HHD usage patterns and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) amongst HHD users during homestay and the impact of individual and HHD usage–related factors on MSDs.

From different states of India, 651 people (especially HHD users from universities and industries) were sampled by using systematic cluster random sampling. In addition, an online questionnaire was used to collect data on the prevalence and risk factors of MSDs. Finally, mean comparisons and chi-square analysis was used to analyse the collected data.

The prevalence rate of MSDs was higher in upper body parts as compared to the lower body parts. The association of gender with MSDs in various body parts was substantial. The time spent on various working and non-working activities using HHDs was significantly associated with MSDs in upper body parts.

Homestay work may be used as an alternative working arrangement, and the risk factors that have the most significant impact on the health of HHD users may be identified by organizations. The findings suggest the proper use of HHDs as per their essential need with intermediate recreational activities.

It is observed that the musculoskeletal health of office workers and university students is a cause for concern during homestay. The current study provides the prevalence of MSDs experienced by HHD users and the association of individual and HHD usage factors with MSDs.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether combining a structured stretching program with functional movement/body position training would yield additive effects on flexibility, ergonomic practices, and subjective pain levels for employees at high risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

Nine control and 13 experimental university cleaning staff participated in a 10-week full-body stretching intervention led by undergraduate students. Experimental participants also engaged in functional movement/body position training once per week. Joint range of motion, task ergonomic form, pain level, and stretching motivation results were compared pre- and post-intervention.

Overall flexibility (+25.75 ± 3.33%) and task ergonomic form (+26.3 ± 10.5%) significantly improved and were negatively correlated with pain levels (r = −0.541 and r = −0.317, respectively). Experimental participants experienced greater improvements in shoulder (control: +16.8 ± 9.0%; experimental: +64.2 ± 11.5%) and hip (control: +31.4 ± 9.9%; experimental: +91.2 ± 19.9%) flexibility as well as in task-specific ergonomic form for vertical (control: +0.0 ± 5.3%; experimental: +35.2 ± 10.1%) and horizontal wiping (control: −4.7 ± 4.7%; experimental: +29.0 ± 7.8%). Intrinsic motivation was increased for both groups (+26.2 ± 15.4%).

Supplementing a workplace stretching program with functional movement/body position training has the potential to improve flexibility and decrease pain while simultaneously increasing the likelihood that cleaning staff will participate in self-directed stretching in the future. The intervention serves as a model for workplace health management and wellness-focused community building on university campuses who insource cleaning staff.

Mental health staff are at risk of sustaining injury from the application of physical intervention, two recent studies reporting that the risk is almost one in every five inidents. It is important that health care organisations are proactive in attempting to reduce the injuries to staff from all sources. Current physical intervention training focuses on safeguarding staff from physical assault and little time is dedicated to ensuring that staff use ergonomically safe and efficient body postures while using physical interventions, in spite of the risk of work‐related musculoskeletal disorders. To combat this problem, those in general nursing have produced a variety of risk assessment tools and conducted research on optimal ways of conducting manual handling training so that staff receive optimal uptake and transference of information from training. This article reviews the research in general nursing and analyses it with a view to informing future physical intervention training programmes.

Different organisations have developed policies and programmes to prevent workplace injuries and facilitate return to work. Few multiple workplace studies have examined workers’ perceptions of these policies and programmes. The purpose of this paper is to compare workers’ perception and experience of workplace policies and practices on injury prevention, people-oriented work culture, and return to work.

This study recruited 118 workers from three healthcare facilities through an online and paper survey.

Work-related musculoskeletal injury was experienced by 46 per cent of the workers, with low back injuries being most prevalent. There were significant differences in perception of policies and practices for injury prevention among occupational groups, and between workers who have had previous workplace injury experience and those without past injury.

Selection bias is possible because of voluntary participation. A larger sample could give stronger statistical power.

The perception of workplace policies can vary depending on workers’ occupational and injury status. Organisational managers need to pay attention to the diversity among workers when designing and implementing injury prevention and return to work policies.

Risks for workplace injuries are related to multiple factors, including workplace policies and practices on health and safety. Workers’ understanding and response to the policies, programmes, and practices can determine injury outcomes.

No previous study has reported on workers’ perceptions of workplace policies and practices for injury prevention and return in Manitoba healthcare sector.