PSYCHOSOCIAL STRESSORS AT WORK AND MUSCULOSKELETAL PROBLEMS

OBJECTIVES - This paper examines the relationship between work stresso rs and the following health indicators: psychosomatic complaints, heal th behavior, and musculoskeletal problems. METHODS - Secondary analyse s were performed on data from the National Work and Living Condition S urvey, which provides a representative sample of the working populatio n in The Netherlands. The survey was made in 1977, 1983, and 1986 by T he Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics. By means of factor analys is the following three risk dimensions were identified in the survey: work pace, intellectual discretion, and physical stressors. RESULTS - High work pace, low intellectual discretion, and physical stressors we re associated with increased health complaints (both psychosomatic and musculoskeletal) and musculoskeletal disorders after adjustment for g ender, age, education, and sports participation. Low intellectual disc retion, but not high work pace, was associated with poor general healt h and health behavior indicative of poor health. Physical stressors we re associated with general health as well, but not with health behavio r, except for reported absenteeism. CONCLUSIONS - Psychosocial stresso rs are not only associated with psychosomatic complaints and health in dicators, but also with musculoskeletal problems, both acute and chron ic. Especially the relation between intellectual discretion and muscul oskeletal problems can be partly attributed to physical load. Even aft er adjustment for physical stressors and moderating personal character istics, the relationships between the psychosocial stressors and muscu loskeletal problems remained significant and comparable in strength to the relationship between psychosocial stressors and several other hea lth outcomes, such as psychosomatic complaints.