Sports medicine professionals recognize that musculoskeletal injuries often result from the cumulative effects of multiple risk factors—physically demanding job tasks, an increasingly aging workforce, and daily production demands. These factors contribute to greater overall injury risk when occurring alongside behavioral risk factors such as improper body mechanics or unhealthy habits. Although we cannot always eliminate these systemic challenges, we can help by focusing on removing the modifiable behavioral risks that impact claims costs and employee well-being.
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders
The set of conditions known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) affect the muscles, connective tissues, bones, and joints. These injuries and disorders, which include strains, sprains and low back injuries, can make everyday life a challenge for sufferers by affecting their ability to walk, bend down, stand for long periods, or even hold a pencil. For employers, the negative repercussions of work-related MSDs are well known and well documented, including lost productivity, absenteeism, and increased medical and workers’ compensation costs.
Injury causality: monocausal vs. multifactorial
MSDs often develop over time and result from a multitude of factors, including working conditions and behavior. Although these injuries are complex, companies continue to approach their prevention and treatment as if they were simple and monocausal.
False assumptions of cause lead many organizations to prescribe reactive measures instead of the necessary proactive approach to address the multiple causes of the injury. For example, a newly hired employee hurts their back after lifting a 50-pound box. The monocausal assumption would be that the employee was injured because the box was too heavy, followed by an attempt to reduce or eliminate that hazard.
However, if they look closer, they may also see that the employee has a preexisting back injury, is less physically fit than their coworkers, and is also not practicing proper lifting techniques. All things, in addition to the heavy box, that could contribute to the injury.
This way of looking at injuries is called systems thinking. Systems thinking is a more holistic form of analysis that investigates how factors and interactions contribute to possible outcomes, events and patterns. This approach helps make sense of a complicated world by viewing issues as a connected whole instead of breaking them down into isolated parts. Applying the concept to injury prevention started gaining more traction during the 1960s and has lead to key gains for sports injury research; contemporary models are built on an understanding of how “a multitude of risk factors predispose and subsequently leave athletes susceptible to sustaining injury” (Hulme, 2015).
From a systems thinking perspective, an athlete’s susceptibility to injury is dynamic, and could continually change based on both the athlete’s own intrinsic set of risk factors (including strength, age, neuromuscular control) as well as external risk factors such as weather, terrain, or competitive rules. However, as discussed above, many organizations today still address injury prevention with a monocausal, outdated approach.
Injury risk factors
So, what are the factors that come into play that lead to workplace musculoskeletal injuries? Sports medicine professionals have long since recognized that MSDs often result from the cumulative effects of multiple risk factors. The most common are physically demanding job tasks, an aging workforce, and daily production demands.
In isolation, these factors do not directly cause injuries. However, they provide a greater overall injury risk when combined with other behavioral risk factors, including improper body mechanics or unhealthy habits. Although we cannot permanently eliminate these systemic challenges, we can help by focusing on removing the modifiable behavioral risks that impact claims costs and employee well-being.
Workplace sprains and strains are, more often than not, the result of various work-related and non-work-related factors. So let’s dig deeper into the different areas that commonly contribute to these injuries.
The following conditions are associated with a higher risk of occupational injury:
This risk is magnified by:
And if left unmitigated often culminates into…
The individual
Personal factors like the worker’s age, previous injuries, and chronic health conditions play a significant role in injury risk. For example, someone who has previously had an injury may be more susceptible to re-injury.
Behavioral risk factors like poor health habits, at-risk body mechanics, or physical inactivity weaken the individual’s body. As a result, they are less able to handle or recover from the physical stress they may encounter in their work life.
On an individual level:
- Intrinsic risk factors
Age, previous injury, chronic health conditions
- Behavioral risk factors
Poor health and well-being habits, at-risk body
mechanics, physical inactivity
The job
There are also risk factors created by the organization the employee works for and the processes, schedules, and tools they use for their job. For example, repetitive stress, awkward positioning, excessive force, or static postures can all contribute to an injury.
Organizational factors like long working hours, role conflicts, workplace culture, and perceived organizational support can all play a part. For example, some workplace cultures may view bringing safety and health issues to superiors negatively. Take construction, for example. The general culture of the industry prides itself on toughness and hard work with no complaints.
In these workplace cultures, bringing up issues about unsafe working conditions may be viewed as complaining and looked down upon by peers. Thankfully this seems to be changing. However, it is still common amongst companies today and can cause workers to suffer in silence instead of addressing issues before they become injuries.
Extrinsic risk factors:
- Physical demands
Repetitive stress, awkward postures, excessive
force, static posture
- Organizational factors
High workload, working hours, role conflicts
- Psychosocial factors
Refers to general workplace culture and perceived organizational support
The solution
Unfortunately, many organizations react to workplace injuries without addressing the underlying causes. Instead of actively trying to prevent accidents, they simply manage the case after the damage has occurred. This approach doesn’t get to the bottom of why it happened and will likely not prevent reoccurrence. Companies that want to make real progress, protect their workers, and reap the rewards of reduced workplace injuries must take a different approach; they must be proactive.
Proactive Total Worker Health approach
Total Worker Health is a holistic, systems-based approach that integrates safety and well-being initiatives into all aspects of an organization. The concept of well-being is not limited to merely physical health.
Athletic trainers and their specialized skills are an underutilized resource for delivering workplace preventative care. These professionals are uniquely qualified in this regard because they can have expertise in medicine, anatomy, acute care management, behavioral change, and documentation procedures.
They also can break down barriers between different branches of an organization because they share the interests of OHNs, HR practitioners, safety professionals, and other occupational health providers who make work fitness determinations. This collaboration between medical and safety professionals can actively mitigate injury risk while supporting Total Worker Health for the entire workforce and individuals.
Here are three ways that a proactive Total Worker Health approach is helping organizations reduce employee workplace injuries:
On-site observation
Placing highly trained athletic trainers on-site to observe and track employee body mechanics issues can help mitigate at-risk behaviors before they result in an injury. In addition, the proactivity of having an on-site presence boosts employee and training interactions and engagements where the injuries are most likely to occur.
On-site trainers have the unique opportunity to intervene in real-life situations and give honest, practical coaching advice that employees can use right away to prevent injury or unnecessary stress on their bodies. This immediate feedback means trainers are more likely to create behavioral changes and increase employee awareness of proper body mechanics, body positioning, and more.
Pre-shift exercise
Exercise is one of the most effective ways to increase mental and social well-being and address the risk factors or injuries accompanying an aging workforce. Exercise doesn’t only improve overall employees’ well-being; it also conditions their bodies and protects them from harm. In addition, it increases employee performance and productivity and makes for better, happier workers.
A 2015 analysis of 61 MSD prevention methods identified resistance exercise as the most effective way to prevent MSDS, concluding that “Implementing a workplace-based resistance training exercise program can help prevent and manage MSDs and symptoms.” In addition, workplace exercise can decrease absenteeism, reduce neck, shoulder, and back pain, and improve job performance.
Individualized care
Another benefit of on-site athletic trainers is that they can break down barriers and build relationships with workers. As a result, employees who would never think of going to a doctor may start to feel more comfortable speaking with an athletic trainer they see every day and feel comfortable with. As a result, workers may begin to bring untreated health issues to the trainer’s attention. Now, instead of suffering in silence, employees receive the care they need, and companies can avoid future accidents.
On-site trainers can also offer individualized, personal programs to manage injuries or aches and pains before they progress into injuries. In this way, they can mitigate future injuries, and offer a truly customized, proactive approach to injury prevention. Trainers can also help coach employees on additional health issues and guide them towards wellness goals and initiatives like reducing stress, weight loss, and managing chronic illness.
BIOKINETIX can help
BIOKINETIX’s groundbreaking approach to occupational medicine has saved its clients more than $109 million since 2004 and is changing how businesses address employee injury prevention, health, well-being, and productivity. BIOKINETIX is confronting the causes of workplace injuries head-on.
Schedule a demo today to discover how our customized programs can help prevent your next workplace injury.
