Intervention practices in musculoskeletal disorder prevention: a critical literature review

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) affect much of the workforce and remain a major form of occupational ill health. With a view to improving the efficacy of interventions, this review examined preventative actions relating to these disorders. A detailed analysis grid was used to classify the information contained in the 47 reviewed articles whose common aspect was to report actions carried out in the workplace that led to the implementation of changes to prevent MSDs. The analysis identified and characterized three major categories of intervention processes in MSD prevention: the complete type (n=17), the shortened type (n=16), and the turnkey type (n=14). These three groups of intervention processes were differentiated by their approaches and their contexts of application. The result was important differences in the changes implemented. Because of the variability in intervention processes and possible impacts on MSD prevention, a proposal to "delimit" these processes so as to improve their effectiveness is presented.