Challenges for the older academic in balancing work and wellness

The objective of this study was to describe the risks for the development of MSDs in older academics.

Four older academics needed modification of their offices to reduce symptoms of MSDs. In order to improve their occupational performance, data were gathered through interviews and observations, facilitating selection of interventions responsive to their unique client factors, physical contexts, and the organizational environment.

Older academics did not perceive risks for the development of MSDs in work that was sedentary. Their routines included few health and wellness behaviors in a culture rewarding excessive work, facilitating commitment to the organization, and understating the importance of health and wellness to the academic community.

Occupational therapists must reframe sedentary work as physically demanding and potentially risky for the development of MSDs, and must recognize the organizational influences on the work of academics. Prolonging work life might likely result from modifications in the physical context and from the academic adopting healthy lifestyle routines within multiple environments.