Development and Validation of the Work-related MusculoSkeletal Disorders Risk Assessment Questionnaire

The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined a WMSD as one musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) that results from a number of factors, and where the work environment and the performance of the work contribute significantly, but in varying magnitude, to the causation of the disease. The term MSD denotes health problems of the musculoskeletal system, i.e. muscles, tendons, the skeleton, cartilage, the vascular system, ligaments and nerves; ranging from light and transitory disorders to disabling injuries and permanent disability, with the loss of employment. WMSDs are in general not caused by one specific, but by multiple risk factors. These include physical (e.g. manual handling of loads, working in awkward postures, repetitive work and working at high speed, exposure to vibrations) as well as psychosocial (work stress, pain believes, sleep disturbances) factors. Consequently, a holistic preventive approach is currently needed. In order to tackle WMSDs, three different levels of prevention can be used to categorise these strategies: i) primary prevention includes the risk assessment process and technical/ergonomic, organisational and person-oriented interventions; ii) secondary prevention involves the identification and health monitoring of workers at risk; and iii) tertiary prevention comprises return-to-work actions.

The answer to the WMSDs problems in companies is holistic prevention, taking into account multifactorial risks for every individual, in order to propose a tailored educational program to every worker need

The study aims to develop and validate a multi-factor and self-perceived risk assessment questionnaire, specifically referred to WMSDs-related pain and risk factors

Gathering information and collecting data on the target population and WMSDs related risk factors:

• Basic characteristics of the target populations (e.g. age, sex, work conditions etc.)
• Potential work-related risk factors (e.g. repetitive motion, static posture, etc.)
• Which of WMSDs affect more the target populations (e.g. back pain, neck pain, upper limb pain, etc.)
• Potential effects of these and related domains (quality of life, pain, number of days of absence from work etc.)