Effectiveness of workplace interventions in rehabilitating musculoskeletal disorders and preventing its consequences among workers with physical and sedentary employment: systematic review protocol

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the leading cause of work disability and sickness absence worldwide. The prevalence of MSDs increases with age, consequently challenging sustainable employability among the growing ageing workforce. Knowledge of feasible and efficient workplace-based interventions to rehabilitate MSD or prevent its consequences is therefore warranted. This systematic review will evaluate the effectiveness of workplace-based interventions on MSDs and its consequences among adult workers with physical and sedentary work tasks, respectively.

We will search the following bibliographic databases: PubMed (including the database ‘MEDLINE’) and Web of Science Core Collection (including the databases ‘Science Citation Index Expanded’, ‘Social Sciences Citation Index’ and ‘Arts & Humanities Citation Index’). Manual searches will also be performed. We will include randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs reported in English in which (1) participants are adult workers with MSD, (2) interventions are aiming at rehabilitating pain symptoms of MSD or preventing the consequences of MSD and (3) interventions are initiated and/or carried out at the workplace. The review will adhere to the ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses’ (PRISMA) guidelines for reporting systematic reviews and the Institute for Work and Health (IWH) guidelines for workplace-based interventions. For the primary evaluation of the review, the quality assessment and evidence synthesis will conform to the IWH guidelines. Secondary evaluation will include a meta-analysis (unless the included studies do not allow this due to heterogeneity) and employ the risk of bias domains recommended by Cochrane along with the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach on the studies with pain intensity as an outcome.

This systematic review will provide knowledge on effective workplace-based interventions among physical and sedentary workers with MSD. RCTs are considered the most powerful experimental design in clinical trials, but solely including these may be too restrictive to understand effective workplace-based interventions where randomised and carefully controlled trials (RCTs) are not always possible. In order to maximize practical relevance, the selection process will, therefore, include both RCTs and non-RCTs and the quality assessment and evidence synthesis will conform to IWH guidelines focusing on developing practical guidelines for stakeholders. The result of this work will form the basis for industry-specific evidence-based recommendations on effective workplace-based interventions for rehabilitation of MSDs and its consequences that will later be operationalised into concrete and user-friendly practical tools for workplaces.

International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) number CRD42018116752.