Return to Work of Subjects Affected by Upper Limb WMSD's in an Office Environment: Comparison of Experiments and Results

Abstract

Upper limb musculo-skeletal disorders are not rare in office environments where automation has spread the use of video display terminals to almost every office task. At a corporate headquarters where 1200 employees work, efforts were conducted to identify, prevent and accommodate upper limb disorders by means of: a) An early report of discomfort questionnaire, b) training volunteers as observers, c) a workstation assessment tool based on observable behaviors that are the result of incongruent organization, anthropometry requirements, awkward posture and repetitive movements, d) a corrective action procedure based on quality/continuous improvement in order to address major risk factors and accommodate workers' re-integration into productive employment. During 1997–1998, 77 symptomatic employees had their interaction with their work tasks and workstations evaluated according to a defined procedure, and were returned to their workstations after modification of that interaction pursuant to a defined improvement process. Persistence of subjective symptoms, satisfaction with changes and evaluation of the process were assessed after six months with a follow up survey. The three most frequent beneficial changes were attributed to the availability and proper use of an adjustable chair (53.3%), adjustable keyboard/mouse tray (31.7%) and adjustable desk configuration (17.7%); 68.8% stated that they were feeling better after the workstation modifications, 9.1% stated they were feeling much better after work adjustments, and 22.1% had noticed none or questionable improvements in their symptoms. None had lost additional work time after the work adjustments up to the follow-up survey. The overall cost of the changes was $35,470.61, or $460.65 per employee average.