Influence of gender on work-related musculoskeletal disorders in repetitive tasks

Abstract

The incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMDs) is high in workers doing highly repetitive movements. This study compared WRMDs symptoms for female and male workers doing the same repetitive industrial tasks. The 103 workers (84 female and 19 male) worked in two product sorting sections. In these two sections, exclusively female until 2 yr before this study, 19 men were hired in an attempt to control WRMDs. The analysis indicates that symptoms were primarily influenced by the work done. Symptoms were secondarily influenced by gender, job tenure and age. When compared within the same age group or in the same job tenure, there was no significant difference in symptoms between male and female workers. Sick leave, reflecting more severe clinical symptoms, was influenced mainly by job tenure. Thus, when confronting poor working conditions, replacements of female workers by male workers is a worthless strategy to control WRMDs. Relevance to industry The identification and characterization of risk factors for WRMDs is a pre-requisite for the proposal and implementation of control measures.