ABSTRACT
In all of the upper limb disorders, relatively systematic reviews of the epidemiological literature have been published. There has been a growing awareness of the inadequacies of some of the earlier epidemiological studies reported, both in defining or describing the disease or illness being explored and in quantifying the potential occupational risk factors. In assessing the risks of musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace, it is common to adopt a generic approach. Where there is strong evidence from the underlying pathology that a particular disorder is a degenerative condition, then a one-off incident is highly unlikely to result in that disorder in an otherwise healthy person. Variations between authors in their inclusion/exclusion criteria for selecting papers for review can result in different evidence bases being evaluated for the same disorder, and differences in the evaluative criteria being applied to selected studies lead to further variability in outcome.
