The Relationship Between The Workplace And Musculoskeletal Disorders

There are many issues related to the average workplace. These issues take a huge toll on the human body and the mind. The most prevalent disorders or afflictions are called Musculoskeletal disorders. These disorders account for more than 70,000,000 physician visits in the United States annually and 130,000,000 health care encounters. MSD was so downplayed and was not considered a priority that factors of MSDs were not recognized to have a significant occupational impact on the human body until 1970s. That is when these work-related disorders started to appear in medical and scientific literature.

Since the 1970s, these articles have improved and evolved; and more than 6000 articles have released since then, yet the relationship between the workplace and Musculoskeletal Disorders have not been implied and thoroughly shown. MSDs are injuries and disorders that affect the tendons, muscles, joints, nerves, cartilage and spine. These, could seriously impact the worker and the employer. The worker could suffer through: stress, pain, injury, a decreased income and death. The employer could have: total profit deficits, through absenteeism, lost productivity, increased health care, disabilities, loss of reputation and liability. There are 4 main examples in the concept of Musculoskeletal disorders, which are; Back Pain, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Arthritis and Hernia. There are different methods of solving these problems but, in a nutshell, preventative measures will take hard work and time.

Lower back pain can be quite prevalent and painful. It can be difficult to cope with the pain but fortunately there are things and actions an employer can take in order to ease the pain and to prevent these issues. By doing this, employers do not have to worry about their employees lost work hours and help them return to work. There are some causes to back pain, and factors to this part of musculoskeletal disorders. These include; repetitive tasks, heavy stress, posture and more. Some factors that may induce back pain are: smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, obesity, past injury and hobbies. There are also many structural, movement and posture problems that affect the average worker. Some risk factors of back pain may occur when performing non-vocational activities. Some preventative measures can be taken, in order to ease the pain from back pain. First off, employers, have legal duties to help the employees and keeping them safe.

Some legal safety and health issues are helpful with dealing with back pain at work. The occupational health profession will be able to emphasize any factors of back pain to the employee and should decide on a plan with supervisors to decide if it is necessary to have the employee to stay at home to recover or if it is ok to resume work.