In office workers, the rate of musculoskeletal diseases is up to more than 65%. The rate is increasing because people’s work is increasingly related to computers.
The decade 2010 – 2020 was chosen by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the “Decade of Bones and Joints”. This shows the prevalence and alarming nature of musculoskeletal diseases.
The most common occupational disease in the world
Musculoskeletal diseases in office workers are the most common occupational disease in the world. In the US, Scandinavian countries and Japan, this is also the largest group of occupational diseases.
The impact of musculoskeletal diseases can vary from mild symptoms to severe dysfunction, even disability. It indirectly reduces the quality of life, reduces labor productivity, causes lost working days and increases medical costs.
Symptoms can be subjective feelings of the patient such as: pain, numbness, stiffness, fatigue; or sometimes are obvious external manifestations such as muscle weakness, limited movement, deformity or more seriously, loss of function.
Among the above symptoms, pain is the most important and common symptom. Pain is considered by WHO as a vital sign of human survival, no less important than heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate.
Pain in office workers’ musculoskeletal diseases is often dull, but persistent, so it can be considered a chronic pain condition. Musculoskeletal pain accounts for 60% of the causes of chronic pain.
Research in the United States shows that pain greatly affects the ability to work, causing a loss of 4.6 working hours per week, costing more than 61 billion USD/year, 76% of production time is lost due to reduced work performance not due to absence. Chronic pain also affects daily physical activities, emotional levels, the ability to enjoy life and even social relationships.
Common musculoskeletal diseases in office workers and their causes
Statistics show that common problems in office workers include back pain, neck and shoulder pain, wrist/hand pain, and vitamin D deficiency.
Back pain:
Even if you do not have to do heavy work, sitting continuously (an average of 6-8 hours/day), little exercise, or sitting in the wrong posture (bending forward, placing the center of gravity unevenly on the buttocks, crossing the legs), can all cause back pain.
In mild cases, it can cause transient back muscle fatigue. More seriously, back pain can be a warning sign of spinal degeneration or lumbar disc herniation.
Shoulder fatigue, neck pain:
When we sit, the two arms are always in a forward position, the head often tends to bend forward, causing the muscles in the neck and shoulder area to have to constantly tense to maintain balance, and the cervical spine loses its physiological position. After sitting at work for a long time, we feel tired shoulders and neck pain. That is because the muscles are overloaded.
Wrist and finger diseases:
When working with a computer, the wrists and hands often rest on the keyboard and mouse. At that time, the two wrist joints are often compressed and almost immobile. Long-term compression of the wrist will cause numbness and pain. The patient also feels pain spreading to the thumb, index finger and middle finger. In severe cases, it can cause atrophy of the thumb muscles, reducing the gripping function of the hand.
Pain, numbness, gait disorders… due to vitamin D deficiency:
Not directly causing the local symptoms as mentioned above, but vitamin D deficiency causes indirect effects but on a whole-body scale. Known as the “sunshine vitamin”, meaning that the skin will synthesize vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. However, office workers go to work early and come home late, and “lock” themselves in closed buildings, so the possibility of vitamin D deficiency in office workers is very high.
We often know vitamin D through its role in the skeleton. Accordingly, vitamin D deficiency will cause osteoporosis and increase the risk of bone fractures. Vitamin D deficiency also affects neuromuscular function, causing pain, numbness, gait disorders and increasing the risk of falls.
It has not been a century since the discovery of vitamin D, but a series of studies have shown that vitamin D has gone beyond the boundaries of a normal vitamin and is considered by doctors as a hormone. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lipid disorders, reduced resistance to infectious diseases, HIV… Few people know that without vitamin D, the body only absorbs 10-15% of the calcium and 60% of the phosphorus we supplement. Bone-forming cells only perform the bone-forming process when there is enough vitamin D and minerals. Yet we rarely pay attention to vitamin D deficiency, especially office workers.
Do office workers need to screen for musculoskeletal diseases?
Many symptoms of musculoskeletal diseases in office workers occur silently or are just short-term pain and fatigue. Office work is often busy, so few people pay attention to the symptoms, and tend to ignore them. This subjectivity has caused many cases of the disease to become more severe and makes treatment difficult.
For a long time, we often think that musculoskeletal diseases are common in the elderly, so we tend to be indifferent and subjective. In fact, when we notice signs of pain, we need to intervene early to avoid damage leading to complications and disability. Early intervention in the working-age group contributes to improving the quality of life, limiting lost working days, increasing productivity, and reducing the burden of medical costs.
