Musculoskeletal problems among VDU workers in a Hong Kong bank

A survey of musculoskeletal problems among visual display unit (VDU) users was carried out in a bank using a self-administered questionnaire. The prevalence of complaints in various body parts were: neck--31.4%, back 30.6%, shoulder--16.5%, hand and wrist--14.9% and arm--6.6%. Frequent users of VDU had significantly more musculoskeletal problems in the neck and shoulder regions than infrequent users. Individual musculoskeltal complaints were associated with various risk factors including personal attributes, working posture, repetitive movements and work station design. Back, neck and shoulder problems were more related to unfavourable working postures, white arm, hand and wrist problems were more affected by repetitive movements. Some risk factors for musculoskeletal problems were specifically related to the nature or design of VDU work. Modification of the workstation design and improvement in work organization should be able to reduce the prevalence of these disorders.