Work-break schedules for preventing musculoskeletal disorders in workers

How much do we know about the effectiveness of warm-up intervention on work related musculoskeletal disorders, physical and psychosocial functions: protocol for a systematic review

INTRODUCTION

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are a growing worldwide burden and effective interventions to prevent them are needed. Physical activity at the workplace is now recognised as a relevant component of WMSDs prevention. Along these lines, warm-up interventions are now offered in a large number of companies to manage WMSDs. Although benefits of warm-up have been previously documented in sports context, to the best of our knowledge, the effectiveness of such intervention in workplaces still remains to be established. Within this context, the aim of the present review is to identify from published literature the available evidence regarding the effects of warm-up on WMSDs and physical and psychosocial functions.

METHODS

The following electronic databases will be searched (from inception onwards to June 2020): Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed (Medline), Web of Science and Physiotherapy Evidence Database. Randomised and non-randomised controlled studies will be included in this review. Participants should be adult employees without specific comorbidities. Interventions should include a warm-up physical intervention in real-workplaces. The primary outcomes will be pain, discomfort or fatigue. The secondary outcomes will be job control or motivation at work. This review will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and two team members will independently screen all citations, full-text articles and abstract data. A systematic narrative synthesis will be provided with information presented in the text and tables to summarise the characteristics and findings of the included studies.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The approval of an ethical committee is not required. All the included studies will comply with the current ethical standards. The results of this review will summarise the effects of warm-up intervention on WMSDs, physical or psychosocial functions. This information could help professionals in decision making related to the use of these interventions to prevent WMSDs. Findings will be disseminated to academic audiences through peer-reviewed publications, as well as to policy-makers.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

CRD42019137211.

Interventions to enhance recovery in healthy workers; a scoping review

Background

Faster recovery from work may help to prevent work-related ill health.

Aims

To provide a preliminary assessment of the range and nature of interventions that aim to improve recovery from cognitive and physical work.

Methods

A scoping review to examine the range and nature of the evidence, to identify gaps in the evidence base and to provide input for systematic reviews. We searched for workplace intervention studies that aimed at enhancing recovery. We used an iterative method common in qualitative research to obtain an overview of study elements, including intervention content, design, theory, measurements, effects and cost-effectiveness.

Results

We found 28 studies evaluating seven types of interventions mostly using a randomized controlled study design. For person-directed interventions, we found relaxation techniques, training of recovery experiences, promotion of physical activity and stress management. For work-directed interventions, there were participatory changes, work-break schedules and task variation. Most interventions were based on the conservation of resources and affect-regulation theories, none were based on the effort-recovery theory. The need for recovery (NfR) and the recovery experiences questionnaires (REQ) were used most often. Study authors reported a beneficial effect of the intervention in 14 of 26 published studies. None of the studies that used the NfR scale found a beneficial effect, whereas studies that used the REQ showed beneficial effects. Three studies indicated that interventions were not cost-effective.

Conclusions

Feasible and possibly effective interventions are available for improving recovery from cognitive and physical workload. Systematic reviews are needed to determine their effectiveness.

Eye movement characteristics reflected fatigue development in both young and elderly individuals

Fatigue can develop during prolonged computer work, particularly in elderly individuals. This study investigated eye movement characteristics in relation to fatigue development. Twenty young and 18 elderly healthy adults were recruited to perform a prolonged functional computer task while their eye movements were recorded. The task lasted 40 minutes involving 240 cycles divided into 12 segments. Each cycle consisted of a sequence involving memorization of a pattern, a washout period, and replication of the pattern using a computer mouse. The participants rated their perceived fatigue after each segment. The mean values of blink duration (BD) and frequency (BF), saccade duration (SCD) and peak velocity (SPV), pupil dilation range (PDR), and fixation duration (FD) along with the task performance based on clicking speed and accuracy, were computed for each task segment. An increased subjective evaluation of fatigue suggested the development of fatigue. BD, BF, and PDR increased whereas SPV and SCD decreased over time in the young and elderly groups. Longer FD, shorter SCD, and lower task performance were observed in the elderly compared with the young group. The present findings provide a viable approach to develop a computational model based on oculometrics to track fatigue development during computer work.