Workplace Psychosocial Factors and Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Discussion Paper

Key words: psychosocial; musculoskeletal disorders; risk factors; prevention; causal mechanisms; workers ' compensation 1Introduction Recent evidence suggests that injury rates are decreasing in most compensation jurisdictions. In British Columbia, the overall number of accepted lost-time claims dropped from 79,428 in 1994 to 71,602 in 1996, a decline of almost 10 % over the past few years (Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada,1997). Embedded within this substantial reduction in overall claims, was a similar, and perhaps even slightly stronger downward trend for sprain and strain injuries, the most common type of work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD). The number of accepted lost-time sprain and strain injuries in British Columbia fell from 40,467 in 1994 to 35,043 in 1996, a drop of 13 % over three years (Association of Workers ' Compensation Boards of Canada,1997). How have these dramatic results come about? What is driving these downward trends? A number of speculative arguments can be put forward to explain the apparent declines: they might simply be misleading statistical artefacts, since lower numbers of claims do not necessarily mea