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Capital Ergonomics: Workstation Assessments

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Rather than trying to accommodate yourself to poor workstation designs and layouts, your workstation should be adapted to you. Small changes to the environment you work in, can help prevent the incidence of musculoskeletal pain and allied symptoms.

Common problems associated with poor workstation set-up include:

Repetitive strain in the shoulders/elbows/wrists/hands
Neck, upper back and/or lower back pain
Headaches
Tingling or sensation changes
Loss of power

Physiotherapy is well placed to identify workstation drivers of symptoms including pain, and advise on strategies, set-up modifications or additional pieces of equipment which can help address work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMDs).

Furthermore, identification of wider environmental factors, including: lighting; ventilation; screen brightness; and noise, additional to exploring strategies to minimize their influence can really make life easier while in your working environment.

While these measures alone can commonly lead to symptom resolution, some cases benefit further again from supplementary treatment, usually including manual therapy and home exercise prescription.

According to a labour force survey, from the Health and Safety Executive there are 480 million workers in the UK suffering from WRMDs (as of 2019/20). Encouragingly, while there seems to have been an overall downward trend in self-reports of these, 8.9 million working days were still lost in 2019/202 to WRMDs, with working in awkward or tiring positions, as well as keyboard work being identified as some of the main causes.

With more of the population now working from home, why not consider whether you could benefit from an ergonomic check, and Physiotherapy expertise.

References:

Health and Safety Executive. (2020) ‘Work related musculoskeletal disorder statistics (WRMDs) in Great Britain, 2020’ (Online) Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/msd.pdf [accessed 12/12/21].