Effectiveness of ergonomic training to reduce physical demands and musculoskeletal symptoms - An overview of systematic reviews

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are associated with awkward postures, excessive force, manual material handling and repetitive movements. This risk factors can be minimized through interventions such as ergonomic training. The literature covers several studies involving the use of this type of intervention, but there is no consensus about the effectiveness of ergonomic training. The aim of this study was to identify the available evidence about the effectiveness of ergonomic training to reduce physical work demand and musculoskeletal symptoms through an overview of systematic reviews. The searches were carried out in Pubmed/Medline, Web of Science, CINAHL, Embase and Cochrane Library. The START (State of the Art through Systematic Review, v.1.06.2) platform aided the selection and evaluation of studies. The studies were evaluated for methodological quality through the AMSTAR (Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews) criteria and the implications for practice. This overview identified a large number of studies with a low to moderate level of evidence, indicating the ineffectiveness of ergonomic training alone or associated with another type of intervention in reducing physical demand and musculoskeletal symptoms in workers. The findings may have occurred due to four main factors: superficial identification of the ergonomic risk factors; lack of scientific evidence about the appropriate configurations of the types of ergonomic training; ambiguous results in the application of ergonomic training; and the difficulty in the effectiveness of the intervention. The study identified an inconsistency in the level of evidence of ergonomic training to reduce physical demand and musculoskeletal symptoms among workers.