FACTS

Sprains and strains are considered acute soft tissue injuries, meaning they are a result of sudden trauma such as falls, twists, or blows to the body.

Risk Factors:

1. Excessive Force: Many work tasks require high force loads on the human body. Muscle effort increases in response to high force requirements, increasing associated fatigue which can lead to MSD.
2. Excessive Repetition: Many work tasks and cycles are repetitive in nature and are frequently controlled by hourly or daily production targets and work processes. High task repetition, when combined with other risks factors such high force and/or awkward postures, can contribute to the formation of MSD. A job is considered highly repetitive if the cycle time is 30 seconds or less.
3. Awkward Posture: Awkward postures place excessive force on joints and overload the muscles and tendons around the effected joint. Joints of the body are most efficient when they operate closest to the mid-range motion of the joint. Risk of MSD is increased when joints are worked outside of this mid-range repetitively or for sustained periods of time without adequate recovery time.
4. Other environmental factors: Slip, trip and fall hazards increase risk of a sudden / acute soft tissue injury.

STATS

• 8 million workers are afflicted by RSIs per year.
• 1 in every 50 workers has RSI symptoms.
• Half of people who work with computers suffer from RSI symptoms.
• Wrists are the most common RSI trouble spot.  Wrist pain is the most common point of pain out of all RSI related injuries.
• 6 out of 10 office workers suffer from wrist pain.
• Up to 23.8% more women complain of RSI symptoms compared to men: More women have poor office health compared to men.
• 55% of RSI-afflicted employees are women: According to the RSIA’s Overview on Upper Limb Disorders, women account for more than half of all workers suffering from RSI.
• 33% of workers with RSI are below 45 years old.  About one-third of workers with RSI are under 45.
• 62.2% of young workers do repetitive motions at least 25% of their work time.
• 34% of all lost workdays are due to work-related musculoskeletal disorders.
• Employees suffering from occupational RSI’s take an average of 23 days to recover.
• Every day, 6 workers are forced to leave their jobs due to permanent RSI disability.