Frequency of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among physical therapists: a systematic review

Musculoskeletal disorders are common among physical therapists because of constant physical work and mechanical stress during interventions. The aim is to synthesize the information of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among physical therapists. A systematic review of observational studies was conducted on PubMed and Google Academics, considering for searching the period of 2015 and 2021. The methodological quality of the studies included were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. The average percentages were calculated by adding the percentages of individual studies for each region and divided by the total number of studies. A total of 74 articles was screened, and 20 of which were assessed. In general, the frequency of work-related musculoskeletal disorders was high (75.27%), with low back pain (54.97%) in first, followed by neck pain (36.16%), upper back pain (30.18%), shoulder (25.52%), hand/wrist (20.92%; 28.32%) and knees (19.08%). It was concluded that physical therapists have high prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, in which low back, neck, shoulder pain and knees were the most reported body regions.