Comprehensive assessment of the risks of sedentary work

Abstract

Recent research shows that musculoskeletal disorders remain a major health and cost problem and their importance is growing. This is reflected in the fact that musculoskeletal disorders are one of the top three concerns for European companies. The Community strategy on health and safety at work highlights the importance of better adapting the workplace to individual needs and the effective application of key ergonomic principles in workplace design and work organisation. Despite continuous efforts, musculoskeletal disorders - back, neck and upper limb - remain a major health and cost burden. The work-body position has a similar perception, with relatively small outliers, but the proportion of working time spent on manual handling or repetitive hand or arm movements is steadily increasing. Recent European research also demonstrates that musculoskeletal disorders - back, neck and upper limb - remain a major health and cost problem and their importance is increasing. This is also indicated by the fact that musculoskeletal disorders are among the top three causes of concern for occupational health and safety in European companies. This is why we chose to focus our research on a comprehensive assessment of the potential risks associated with sedentary work and to investigate the risk analysis methods that can be applied, using a laboratory work example.