How much hand activity, how much force, what awkward postures and how much vibration does it take before work injures the wrist, forearm or shoulder? To find out, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) set up a collaborative research program with six universities and one state agency to prevent work-related upper limb musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
What the consortium studies
| Disorders | carpal tunnel syndrome; tendinitis of the forearm and wrist; shoulder disorders |
| Job exposures measured | hand activity level; forceful exertion; awkward postures; vibration transmitted to the hand |
| Personal factors considered | age; sex; body mass index; other health conditions |
| Workers studied | more than 4,000, in many industries |
The goals: find the levels of job demands that raise the risk of these disorders, see whether exposure predicts who gets hurt, and guide prevention.
The partners
- NIOSH
- the University of California (Berkeley and San Francisco)
- the University of Connecticut
- the University of Iowa
- the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin
- Washington University in St. Louis
- the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries' SHARP program
Researchers have also pooled data from across the consortium.
Some NIOSH findings
NIOSH researchers have published prospective studies of workplace and personal risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome (Burt and others, 2011 and 2013) and for rotator cuff syndrome among manufacturing and health care workers (Meyers and others, 2023), and compared methods of assessing hand activity and force for the ACGIH hand activity level threshold (Wurzelbacher and others, 2010).
Sources
Based on "Upper Limb Musculoskeletal Disorders Consortium," National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
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