ArticleInternational archives of occupational and environmental health2023
Within-individual changes in physical work demands associated with self-reported health and musculoskeletal symptoms: a cohort study among Dutch workers.
Article in International archives of occupational and environmental health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Change in physical workload and the risk of work disability due to musculoskeletal disorders: a register-based study of 1 703 935 workers in Sweden.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2026Article
- Organizational strategies of eldercare work and health - Is the daily number of residents cared for over 14 months associated with back pain?Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2025Article
- From data to medical context: the power of categorization in healthcare.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThis study aimed to investigate changes in physical work demands in association with self-rated health and musculoskeletal symptoms.
methodsData from five waves over the period 2019-2021 of the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey COVID-19 were available for 7191 participants aged 19-64 years who worked (partly) on-site during at least two consecutive waves. Logistic generalized estimated equations (GEE) were used to estimate the odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for changes (increase or decrease compared to no change) in physical work demands between two waves and poor self-rated health and musculoskeletal symptoms in the following wave, adjusted for the health outcome at the first wave, age, educational level, working hours and hours worked from home.
resultsIn females, a statistically significant association was found between an increase in physical work demands compared to no change and musculoskeletal symptoms (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.17-1.65). A decrease in physical work demands in females was not statistically significantly associated with musculoskeletal symptoms (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.80-1.08). Similar trends were found for poor self-rated health, although non-statistically significant. For males, comparable but attenuated associations were found.
conclusionWhile our study showed that increasing physical work demands are associated with adverse health (self-reported and musculoskeletal), it did not appear to benefit worker's health to reduce work demands. Future research with multiple measurements in a shorter period and additionally using devices to measure physical work demands will be needed to confirm our study results.
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