Frequency of breaks, amount of muscular rest, and sustained muscle activity related to neck pain in a pooled dataset.

Background: Neck pain remains a persistent challenge in modern society and is frequently encountered across a wide range of occupations, particularly those involving repetitive and monotonous tasks. It might be expected that patterns of trapezius muscle activity at work, characterized by few breaks and prolonged periods of sustained muscle activity, are linked to neck pain. However, previous cross-sectional studies have generally failed to establish a definitive association.

Do intensity of pain alone or combined with pain duration best reflect clinical signs in the neck, shoulder and upper limb?

Objectives: It is important to validate self-reported musculoskeletal pain used in epidemiological studies for evaluation of pain outcome measures. The main objective of this paper was to assess the association between self-reported neck/shoulder/upper limb pain and clinical signs of disorders in the region, especially by comparing a measure that only used pain intensity with a measure that combined pain intensity and pain duration.

Methods: Four hundred and twenty technical school students of both genders were included with a median age of 17 years (16-28).

Defensive Functioning Moderates the Effects of Nondirective Meditation.

We have recently found that nondirective meditation facilitates stress reduction. This supplementary study investigated whether defensive functioning would moderate these beneficial effects. We explored the occurrence of defense mechanisms and the impact of defensive functioning on the outcome of companies' stress management programs regarding worries nervousness, mental distress, sleep problems, and muscle pain.

Associations of objectively measured total duration and maximum bout length of standing at work with lower-extremity pain intensity: a 2-year follow-up of construction and healthcare workers.

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders are among the major reasons for years lived with disability. Approximately one third of the European working population report lower-extremity discomfort and many attribute these discomforts to work-related factors. Employees in the healthcare and construction sectors reports high levels of lower-extremity pain and commonly relate the pain to their profession.

Can a metric combining arm elevation and trapezius muscle activity predict neck/shoulder pain? A prospective cohort study in construction and healthcare.

Objective: To determine whether a composite metric of arm elevation and trapezius activity (i.e. neck/shoulder load) is more strongly associated with the 2-year course of neck and shoulder pain intensity (NSPi) among construction and healthcare workers than each exposure separately.