The role of force and repetition in musculoskeletal disorder risk

Abstract

While many epidemiological papers have examined the effects of force and repetition on musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) risk, relatively few have examined the effects of these factors in combination. Many papers that have examined both factors in combination provide evidence of an interaction between force and repetition in the development of MSDs. When biological tissues are tested to failure using varied levels of force and repetition, a similar interaction is observed. Taken together, these findings suggest that force and repetition should not be treated as independent risk factors for MSDs, but as factors dependent on one another. This paper further posits that fatigue failure models provide a useful framework that helps to explain the observed force-repetition relationship. A model is presented that summarizes the hypothesized role of force and repetition on tissue injury and repair.

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