Ergonomics considerations in hand and wrist tendinitis.

The objectives of this article are to present (1) a historical perspective on hand and wrist tendinitis in workers, (2) new data that demonstrate a relationship between the repetitiveness and forcefulness of manual work and the prevalence of tendinitis, (3) possible biomechanical factors in tendinitis, and (4) possible job modifications for the prevention of tendinitis. Numerous studies during the last 100 years show that tendinitis is a major cause of worker suffering and workers' compensation in intensive hand work. Epidemiologic data show that the risk of hand and wrist tendinitis in persons who perform highly repetitive and forceful jobs is 29 times greater than in persons who perform jobs that are low in repetitiveness and force. A possible factor in this relationship is viscous deformation of the tendons and adjacent tissues. Although these data suggest that the risk of tendinitis among workers can be reduced by reduction of the repetitiveness and the forcefulness of the work, this hypothesis has not yet been fully tested.