Epidemiological aspects of studying work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

There are many challenges to conducting valid epidemiological research of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and interpreting reports describing the results. In particular, these concern the basic study design, selection of subjects, measurement of exposure and outcome, control of confounding and the limitations of workers' compensation data systems. Researchers and people interested in the research results need to be aware of the major potential problems and pay careful attention to them when designing, conducting and using the results of such research.