Friday September 15 3:26 PM ET Stress, co-workers may contribute to RSI

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Are you stressed out and unhappy with co-workers and supervisors at work? If so, you may be at higher risk of pain associated with performing repetitive movements on the job, according to British researchers.

Repetitive strain injuries, including carpal tunnel syndrome, are caused by repeating the same motions over and over at work, such as typing on a keyboard or assembling widgets in a factory line.

In a study of nearly 2,000 men and women aged 18 to 65, about 8% reported arm pain typical of a repetitive strain injury. Most of these people also had pain radiating into the shoulder, back and elsewhere in the body.

But those who were feeling particularly stressed by their job or were unsatisfied with the support they were receiving from supervisors and colleagues were at much greater risk of such pain, the investigators report in the September 16th issue of the British Medical Journal.

``Onset of forearm pain was related to the level of satisfaction with support from supervisors and colleagues,'' according to Professor Gary J. Macfarlane of the University of Manchester, UK, and colleagues.

The finding ``confirms a long suspected relation between work-related repetitive movements and onset of forearm pain but also that the onset of symptoms can be predicted by high levels of psychological distress and adverse work-related...experiences,'' the authors conclude.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), September 17, 2000

Answers

Perhaps the apparent relationship between job dissatisfaction and degree of RSI pain is due to the former's translating to greater pressure being exerted on the keyboard. (I'm only half kidding. I can recall having done this myself, though it never reached RSI proportions.)

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), September 17, 2000.