Do Personal Factors or Types of Physical Tasks Predict Workplace Injury?

Occupational health research has shown that certain worker and job characteristics are risk factors for workplace injuries. Workers who engage in physically demanding jobs, especially those jobs that involve repetitive motion, are at greater risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD). These risks are particularly prevalent in the health care sector. It is often reported that nurses are at higher risk of workplace musculoskeletal injury than other health care workers due to frequent lifting and transfer of patients and the prevalence of workplace violence. However, many analyses of the physical requirements of jobs do not consider the modifying effect of time spent on a physical task and the risk of WMSD. This study compared the risks of WMSD among workers in health care facilities based on the type of physical tasks and amount of time workers spent on such tasks. Workers who worked longer on a physical task reported more WMSD than those who spent less time on the same physical task. The risk of WMSD was twice as high (odds ratio [OR] = 2.3) among workers who sit less than 2 hours each day compared with those who sit longer. This study found that physical tasks associated with health care jobs and the amount of time spent on these tasks constitutes serious risk factors for WMSD.