Symptoms and sickleave among forestry machine operators working with pronated hands.

Nineteen forestry machines operators worked with two types of hand controls. Harvesting operators, who worked with their hands in pronated position, were more often on sickleave compared with operators working with their hands semi-pronated. This is one of several important factors related to musculoskeletal symptoms. The experience from laboratory studies as well as epidemiological studies should be carefully considered when designing hand controls for machine operators.