ABSTRACT
The term work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD) refers to any disorder that involves the nerves, tendons, muscles and supporting structures of the body as a result of any work-related activity. There are numerous published studies which stress the ‘risk factors’ that are found to be associated with WMSDs. These are described as being either workplace/occupational factors, individual/personal factors (Winkel and Westgaard, 1992), or psychosocial factors (eg. Houtman et al., 1994; Theorell et al., 1991). Studies have shown that the WMSD risk associated with individual factors was small when compared with that associated with workplace exposures (Armstrong et al., 1993), and a clearer role of psychosocial factors in the development of WMSDs is still under debate (Bongers et al., 1993). A number of observational techniques have been developed since the 1970’s to assess WMSD risks and these are reviewed in Li and Buckle (1999a).
