Musculoskeletal pain trajectories of employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Oakman, Jodi Neupane, Subas Kyrönlahti, Saila Nygård, Clas-Håkan Lambert, Katrina
Abstract	ObjectivesIn March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid public health response which included mandatory working from home (WFH) for many employees. This study aimed to identify different trajectories of multisite musculoskeletal pain (MSP) amongst employees WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic and examined the influence of work and non-work factors.MethodsData from 488 participants (113 males, 372 females and 3 other) involved in the Employees Working from Home (EWFH) study, collected in October 2020, April and November 2021 were analysed. Age was categorised as 18–35 years (n = 121), 36–55 years (n = 289) and 56 years and over (n = 78). Growth Mixture Modelling (GMM) was used to identify latent classes with different growth trajectories of MSP. Age, gender, working hours, domestic living arrangements, workstation comfort and location, and psychosocial working conditions were considered predictors of MSP. Multivariate multinomial logistic regression was used to identify work and non-work variables associated with group membership.ResultsFour trajectories of MSP emerged: high stable (36.5%), mid-decrease (29.7%), low stable (22.3%) and rapid increase (11.5%). Decreased workstation comfort (OR 1.98, CI 1.02, 3.85), quantitative demands (OR 1.68, CI 1.09, 2.58), and influence over work (OR 0.78, CI 0.54, 0.98) was associated with being in the high stable trajectory group compared to low stable. Workstation location (OR 3.86, CI 1.19, 12.52) and quantitative work demands (OR 1.44, CI 1.01, 2.47) was associated with the rapid increase group.ConclusionsFindings from this study offer insights into considerations for reducing MSP in employees WFH. Key considerations include the need for a dedicated workstation, attention to workstation comfort, quantitative work demands, and ensuring employees have influence over their work.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00420-022-01885-1.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC9175522&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	03400131
Journal	International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health [Int Arch Occup Environ Health]
Volume Number	95
DOI	10.1007/s00420-022-01885-1
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9175522
Issue Number	9
PubMed reference number	35674803
e-ISSN	14321246
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2022-06-08
Publisher Place	Berlin/Heidelberg
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2022, corrected publication 2022
Subject Keyword	Musculoskeletal pain Working at home COVID-19 Trajectory analysis Quantitative demands Influence Workstation
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health