Evaluation of the effectiveness of workplace exercise in controlling neck, shoulder and low back pain: a systematic review

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders have been recognized as a worldwide health problem. One of the measures for controlling these disorders is workplace exercise, either at the workstation or in a separate environment within the company. However, there is controversy regarding the effectiveness and means of applying these interventions. Objectives: To assess and provide evidence of the effectiveness of workplace exercise in controlling musculoskeletal pain. Methods: The following databases were searched: PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, PEDro and Web of Science. Two independent reviewers selected the elegible studies. Possible disagreements were solved by consensus. All randomized controlled clinical trials that evaluated exercise interventions in the workplace musculoskeletal pain relief were included. The PEDro scale (range=0-10 points) was used to rate the quality of the studies included in this review. Results and Conclusions: The electronic search yielded a total of 8680 references published in English. At the end of the selection process, 18 studies were included. Strong evidence was found to support the effectiveness of physical exercise in controlling neck pain among workers who performed sedentary tasks in offices or administrative environments, while moderate evidence was found for low back pain relief among healthcare and industrial workers who performed heavy physical tasks. These positive results were reported when the training periods were longer than 10 weeks, the exercises were performed against some type of resistance and the sessions were supervised. None of the studies evaluating sedentary workers reported positive results for controlling musculoskeletal shoulder pain. Further randomized controlled trials are needed to comparatively evaluate, among other aspects, the effects of light and heavy training for shoulder pain relief,