The ability of background factors, work practices, and psychosocial variables to predict the severity of musculoskeletal discomfort

Abstract

This study identified which combination of background factors, work practice, and psychosocial variables could discriminate most accurately between individuals with mild, moderate, or severe musculoskeletal discomfort in a population of 155 customer service representatives of a telecommunications company. These risk profiles were obtained for overall upper body musculoskeletal discomfort, as well as for each individual body part (neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand, and back). Results of discriminant analyses suggested that risk profiles were different for each body part and could accurately classify from between 50 and 100% mild, moderate, or severe discomfort categories. These risk profiles were all highly significant (<0.01). This research identified the amount of social support, job variety, and skill utilization on the job as the psychosocial variables most often associated with musculoskeletal discomfort in this population.