Work postures and neck-shoulder pain among orchestra musicians

The purpose of the present study was to identify associations between a work posture with elevated arm position, duration of active playing time, and neck-shoulder pain among orchestra musicians.

In this study, with a cross-sectional study design, a total of 235 subjects from 12 Swedish orchestras were categorized into four exposure groups according to arm position and duration of active playing time. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) for neck-shoulder pain in the four exposure groups.

A higher prevalence of neck-shoulder pain were found in the groups "elevated arm position, <2 hr per workday" [OR 4.15 (1.30-13.22)], and "elevated arm position, >3 hr per workday" [OR 5.35 (1.96-14.62)] compared to the group "neutral arm position, <2 hr per workday".

Musicians working in an elevated arm position (e.g., violinists, violists, flutists, and trumpet players) had a higher prevalence of neck-shoulder pain than those working in a more neutral position.