The Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on the Perception of Physical Activity and on the Perception of Musculoskeletal Symptoms in Computer Workers: Comparative Longitudinal Study Design

Abstract

Lockdown resulting from the pandemic led to a change in the health habits of the computer workers community. Sedentary work, together with less active lifestyles, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic leads to impacts on physical activity (PA) and can contribute to the development of musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS). Aim(s): Understand the effects of lockdown on the perception of physical activity levels and on the perception of frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms, over periods of 12 months and 7 days, in computer workers. Methods: Longitudinal comparative study between 2019 (M1) and 2021 (M2), over 18 months, in 40 volunteer participants. The inclusion criteria were full-time workers aged between 18 and 65 and the exclusion criteria included diagnosis of non-work-related medical conditions. In addition to a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire (NMQ) was used to evaluate the MSS and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), was used to analyse the perception of the level of PA. These questionnaires were used in two assessment stages (M1 and M2). McNemar test and Wilcoxon paired test were used to evaluate the effect of lockdown on the perception of PA, and on the perception of frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms. Results: The MSS prevalence in the previous 12 months increased significantly in the neck (M1: 45.0%, M2: 62.5%, p = 0.046), in the shoulders (M1: 37.5%, M2: 55.0%, p = 0.033), and in the hands/wrists (M1: 25.0%, M2: 45.0%, p = 0.019). The mean pain score increased in the shoulders (1.43 ± 2.24, 2.35 ± 2.55, p = 0.003) and in the elbows (0.18 ± 0.59, 0.60 ± 1.34, p = 0.015). No differences were found in the PA between M1 and M2, but the weekly mean sitting time increased from 4.75 ± 2.26 to 6.26 ± 2.65 (p < 0.001). Conclusion: After 18 months it became clear that MSS perception increased mainly in the neck, shoulders and hands/wrists with a significant increase in pain intensity in the shoulder and elbow regions. The weekly sitting time increased significantly. Further studies are needed in order to determine the impact of teleworking in a pandemic context. But multifactor behind these results should be taken into account by health institutions and those responsible for the Prevention of Occupational Risks in Computer Workers in order to adopt educational strategies for the promotion of Physical activity (PA), in these workers.

Correlation between Employee Performance, Well-Being, Job Satisfaction, and Life Satisfaction in Sedentary Jobs in Slovenian Enterprises

“…Job satisfaction can be improved in practice by encouraging employees and making them encourage other employees [ 14 , 15 , 20 , 21 , 30 ], which also improves team cohesion [ 37 ], by giving them access to information and all necessary resources to perform their job efficiently, giving them real-time feedback on their job performance [ 43 ] and by providing them with opportunities to explore and show their skills and talents. Furthers studies are needed to confirm whether the employer’s trust and faith in their employees are crucial, a subject studied by others [ 21 , 30 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. The participants, however, believe that the biggest hindrance to achieving such improvement are employees who are not ready to cooperate.…”

“…The findings from this study also led to the conclusion that sedentary jobs in the studied companies require complex human resource management. Therefore, more complex studies are needed in this field, with special monitoring and maybe even with human resource index (HRI) measurements, e.g., [ 43 ], which is the current trend in economics, as well as the new reality in economics [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ] and in society.…”

“…As in most of Europe, Slovenia is also facing the challenge of sedentary behavior as part of modern work conditions. This is the first time that Slovenian enterprises were researched in terms of sedentary work conditions, concerning job satisfaction, life satisfaction and well-being on work performance, which is the main novelty of the work and presents the possibility of comparing findings with other studies [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ], such as the effect of COVID-19 [ 5 , 47 ], remote job options and cross-country differences [ 53 ] or socio-economics status in the relationship between leadership and well-being [ 54 ]. The main gaps, which are supplemented by our studies, are, in addition to finding the correlations between some factors and work performance in sedentary jobs, encouraging similar further studies with the final goal of determine the factors that correlate most with job performance in sedentary work conditions.…”

“…There are also always questions connected to lifestyle, in modern society especially related to eating habits [ 45 ]. The dynamic, adaptable complex approaches are especially important in recent years in response to COVID-19, connected with changes in general lifestyle, physical activity patterns, and sedentary behavior and associations with mental health [ 44 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ], especially in computer workers, as one of the most typical sedentary works. In recent years, authors have suggested different models for the balance between work and life for subjective well-being, e.g., the moderated mediation model [ 50 ], or they have written about exploring the nature and antecedents of employee energetic well-being at work and job performance [ 51 ].…”