title: Work-related musculoskeletal conditions: evidence from the THOR reporting system 2002-2005.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are commonly encountered in current occupational health practice and comprise up to 45% of the workload for occupational physicians (OPs).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare the reported incidence of work-related (WR) MSDs by specialist OPs and specialist rheumatologists and to relate it to self-reported and general practitioners-reported WR MSDs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of data reported to surveillance schemes within The Health and Occupation Reporting network and comparison to denominator data derived from the Labour Force Survey and occupational/work activity classifications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There are significant differences between the patterns of WR MSDs seen by the different specialist groups. Thus OPs report three times as many back and lower limb conditions. However, both specialist groups report similar numbers of cases of hand-arm vibration syndrome (12/9%) and 'vague and ill-defined' upper limb conditions (16/14%). The absolute risk of physician reported that WR MSDs increases 5-fold between ages 15-24 and 45-64.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The specialist reporting schemes give an indication of current practice and are useful both to update and to strategically inform planning. The data are amenable, with appropriate statistical analysis, for comparison with self-reporting and to the characterization of risk in broad categories of occupation and work activity.
authors.affiliation: Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (CEOH), Floor 4, Ellen Wilkinson Building, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Slovak
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carder
authors.forename: Annemarie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Money
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Agius
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D017678:Sex Distribution; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult