Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) account for 28% of all work related ill health in the UK, this equates to 470,000 workers suffering in the year period from 2020 to 2021. These work related injuries cost employers £3.2 billion a year.

You may work with a very small team and feel all of your employees are safe from MSD's or be part of a larger business with all the necessary health & safety initiatives to reduce the rate of MSD's in the workplace, but there is no significant change in incidents of work related MSD's based on the size of your business, and it is reported that small, medium, and large businesses all report a similar prevalence per 100,000 workers.

Although the size of a business does not seem to affect the prevalence of MSD's the industry in which you work does. Two broad industry categories had significantly higher rates of MSD's than the average. Both construction (1,830 per 100,000), and human health and social (1,500 per 100,000) work were identified to have a significantly higher rate of MSD's than the average (1,130 per 100,000) for all other industries. Within these categories skilled trades occupations had the highest reported incidents (2,060 per 100,000), followed by process, plant, and machine operatives (1,710 per 100,000) and caring, leisure, and other service occupations (1,690 per 100,000) compared to the average of all occupational groups (1,130 per 100,000).

When you take into account the self-reported causes and aggravators of these MSD's you can begin to build a picture as to why the above industries and occupations may have a higher prevalence. Manual lifting, awkward and tiring positions were the main self-reported causes for MSD's followed by keyboard work and repetitive actions. A separate GP report found that heavy lifting accounted for 28% of work related MSD's, 19% caused by material manipulation, and 11% by keyboard work.

The other factors recorded included the areas affected and the age and gender category worst affected. The main area affected was the upper limb and neck accounting for 45% of MSD's, closely followed by the back (39%), and the lower limb (16%). Both males and females aged 45 to 55+ had a significantly higher prevalence of MSD's compared to males and females aged 16-34.

What does this mean for you as an employer or manager?

Do you work in one of the industries or with a work force age with a higher prevalence?

Do you have an ability to compare the incidents at your workplace to those on a national level?

Do you have a professional that is able to help your employee through a full recovery?

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments of this post!

Arwel Roberts

Arwel@hiveneath.co.uk