Studies tend to show that females have a higher prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints than males in the workplace, suggesting that gender plays a role in predisposition for injury. Not so according to Hooftman et al. who performed a survey of papers that examined gender, work-related physical/psychosocial risk factors and musculoskeletal disorders. When comparing the same risk factor with gender incidence for a specific regional disorder (i.e., back pain), the evidence is inconclusive or, more so, shows males to have a higher incidence of complaints.
Over 1600 potential articles were identified and assessed with stringent, predetermined, inclusion criteria leading to the detailed review of 31 studies:
This article originally appeared in The Ergonomics Report™ on 2004-11-30.