Workplace interventions to prevent musculoskeletal and visual symptoms and disorders among computer users: A systematic review

Abstract

Few high quality studies were found that examined the effects of interventions in the office on musculoskeletal or visual health.

Computer Use Patterns Associated with Upper Extremity Musculoskeletal Symptoms

“…A systematic review of the computing duration literature and office ergonomics intervention literature revealed there is inconsistent evidence in the field regarding break length and frequency [3,8]. Questions as to how to define break length remain as new ideas of larger (macro) and smaller (micro) breaks have evolved, prompting the need for further research in this area as the evidence describing the positive association between computer use and symptoms becomes more certain.…”

“…Consequently, it becomes more challenging to design evidence-based office ergonomics interventions. A recent systematic review concluded few high quality studies examined the effect of office ergonomic interventions on health: interventions focused on rest breaks (4 studies) found mixed evidence to support a positive impact of rest breaks on musculoskeletal health and moderate evidence (2 studies) to support no impact of rest breaks with stretching exercises on musculoskeletal health [8]. It is crucial that consistent and more comprehensive computer use exposure classifications be used to facilitate synthesizing findings in the literature that will in turn allow for better designed office interventions.…”

Explicit and implicit theories of change when designing and implementing preventive ergonomics interventions – a systematic literature review

“…The taxonomy and analysis strategy for summarizing information about the published interventions was mainly inspired by the methodological guidelines in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (54) and procedures used by Bos & van Kammen (55), Brewer et al (45) and Oldenburg et al (56). Thus, each of the articles accepted for the review was examined and coded according to a standardized protocol (table 1).…”

“…In a review of the effectiveness of participatory interventions, Rivilis et al (44) stated that those 12 studies that were of at least medium quality showed some evidence that participation had a positive impact on different indicators of musculoskeletal health. Brewer et al (45) examined the effects on musculoskeletal or visual health reported in 31 intervention studies in office settings, and concluded that few of the studies were of high quality, and that evidence was insufficient in many cases to conclude about intervention effectiveness. In a meta-review, Silverstein & Clark (46) discussed 17 systematic review articles on interventions to reduce work-related MSD.…”

Concordance between VDU-users’ ratings of comfort and perceived exertion with experts’ observations of workplace layout and working postures

“…In addition, the study concluded that the relationship between keyboard design and upper extremity symptoms is supported by sufficient evidence to make recommendations for optimal keyb design . Moreover, in a review Brewer and colleagues have concluded that there was a moderate evidence for an association between the use alternative pointing devices in connection with computer work and a decrease in musculoskeletal or visual adverse health effects (Brewer et al, 2006 (Hagberg et al, 1995). It is likely to have a substantial impact on physical exposure (e.g.…”