Exercise therapy and work-related musculoskeletal disorders in sedentary workers.

Background: Work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs) are a syndrome of symptoms affecting the upper quadrant of the body and are a significant cause of pain, disability and sickness absence among workers. Exercise therapy is considered to be a clinical and cost-effective strategy in WRULD management.

Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of exercise therapy for WRULDs in sedentary workers.

Methods: This review follows an a priori protocol to maintain internal validity describing essential procedures to be followed (e.g. a comprehensive search strategy, duel extraction and critical appraisal). The methodological quality of the studies were assessed using Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for all randomized controlled trials and the Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) tool for systematic reviews.

Results: A total of 11 articles were selected for inclusion. There was moderate evidence to suggest exercise is effective in reducing the symptoms of pain and improved function in WRULDs in sedentary workers when compared to a control group.

Conclusions: The results were comparable to recent systematic reviews, which have found evidence to support the use of exercise therapy, in mixed populations of workers. There is a need for further research to highlight the most effective form of exercise, optimal dosage and delivery method.