The impact of work-related psychosocial stressors on the onset of musculoskeletal disorders in specific body regions: A review and meta-analysis of 54 longitudinal studies

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) cause both human suffering and economic losses. Psychosocial stressors at work have been found to be associated with risk of MSDs, but it is unclear whether the association is causal. This review summarises the results of 54 longitudinal studies investigating the impact of psychosocial stressors at work on the onset of musculoskeletal disorders in the neck/shoulder, upper extremities, and low back. We searched for longitudinal studies published in English language between 2000 and 2009 inclusive via a systematic literature search in various publication databases. We defined quality criteria to ensure that the included studies relied on well assessed and analysed data. We clustered the psychosocial factors examined in the studies into nine categories of self-reported psychosocial work environment and one category of psychological distress. We used three body-specific endpoints (neck/shoulder; upper extremities; low back) and one overall endpoint (all body regions combined). Of the 40 meta-analyses conducted, 26 were based on at least five effect sizes. Of those, 19 revealed statistically significant pooled effect sizes. We conclude that psychosocial factors should be considered as independent predictors of onset of MSDs and be relevant to prevention and intervention programmes in occupational safety and health.