ABSTRACT

Musculoskeletal pain complaints remain a major problem in workplaces across the world and latest statistics from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK show musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) as the biggest cause of work-related illness with a prevalence of approximately 572,000 in 09/10 (HSE 2010). Of that figure 248,000 are described as “mainly back”, 230,000 as “mainly upper limb” and 94,000 as “mainly lower limb”. It is noticeable then, that these problems tend to be seen as discrete and indeed the HSE’s website is clearly differentiated between back problems and upper limb problems on their MSDs page. Lower limb problems typically get much less coverage, but interest is increasing and last year HSE produced a research report scoping the area (Okunribido 2009). Whilst HSE is used as an example in this case, the picture is very similar across the globe.