Validation of Fatigue Failure Risk Assessment Tools Against Physician-Diagnosed Outcomes

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Evidence suggests that musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) may be the result of a fatigue failure process in musculoskeletal tissues. Recently risk assessment tools using fatigue failure principles have been developed to evaluate risk of low back disorders (LiFFT), distal upper extremity disorders (DUET), and shoulder disorders (The Shoulder Tool). All have been validated against multiple musculoskeletal disorder outcomes such as joint pain and clinic visits for MSD complaints. This paper provides validation of DUET against occupational physician diagnosed carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and The Shoulder Tool against diagnosed bicipital tendinosis. Results demonstrated that in both cases the fatigue failure risk assessment tools were significantly associated with physician-diagnosed outcomes in both crude and adjusted analyses (p < 0.01).