Gender differences in musculoskeletal health of computer and mouse users in the Swedish workforce

The objectives of the study were to explore the musculoskeletal health of c omputer users in the Swedish workforce with regard to gender and psychosoci al factors. and to describe gender differences between the occupational gro ups. A subset was chosen from a large survey of 12,462 individuals represen ting the workforce of Sweden, performed by Statistics Sweden. Included in t he subset were 2044 subjects who worked for at least half their working hou rs with personal computers, or an equivalent device, and also used a comput er mouse. All occupational groups had prevalence ratios (women/men) >1. Whe n using regression models, the variables 'learn and develop' and 'involved in planning your work' were health factors, and 'too much to do' was a risk factor for upper body symptoms for both women and men. For women 'PC durat ion 100' was a risk factor and 'support from superiors' was a health factor . Age seemed to be a stronger risk factor for men than for women.