Musculoskeletal Disorders in Health-Related Occupations

This work focuses on the study of occupational musculoskeletal diseases, which was the subject of a European collaborative research project under the Biomed IV programme. Funded by the European Commission, the project consisted of a series of investigations of musculoskeletal disorders in health-related professions (such as nurses, physiotherapists and hospital porters). The research groups were based in Liverpool John Moores University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Free University of Amsterdam. The authors provide a comprehensive background for the approaches towards studying musculoskeletal problems. There is an initial overview of the whole project before the uses of the various methodologies adopted are reviewed. These include epidemiological investigations, physiological analyses, spinal loading and formal risk assessment. There are useful backgrounds on eletromyography and body composition techniques, before their applications in an occupational context are described. Discrete studies in the various countries are placed in context. The text culminates in the promulgation of a preventative model for the nursing profession and a review of the research project in total.
The book provides information about ergonomics in action and should be a useful update on contemporary work on musculoskeletal diseases.