[The interactive effect of job task and psychosocial factors on work-related musculoskeletal disorders]

To investigate the interactive effect of job task and psychosocial factors on the outcomes of musculoskeletal disorders.

653 workers from different type of manufacturing industries and administration office recruited in a cross-sectional epidemiological survey. The Quick Exposure Check (QEC) was applied to assess the ergonomic load of job task, Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) for identifying psychological characteristics, and Nordic Standardized Questionnaire for investigating outcomes of WMSDs.

The prevalence of WMSD in shoulder, upper back, lower back and hand/wrist were significantly different under a variety of combined job task and psychosocial characteristics (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). The more physical and psychological loads, the higher prevalence of WMSDs were revealed. By using multivariate analyses, a potential interactive effect was found in terms of the WMSDs symptoms in hand/wrist, shoulder, upper back and lower back after adjusted by work year, age, and gender.

Higher physical load and greater psychosocial risk are more frequent self-reported symptoms of WMSDs than those of lower exposures. Ergonomic intervention strategies aimed at reducing the incidence of WMSDs should not only be focused on control of physical work factors but also psychosocial risks of relevance.