Describing the Burden of Upper-Extremity Musculoskeletal Disorders in Newspaper Workers: What Difference do Case Definitions Make?

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) of the upper limb are of growing concern, although there is no consensus on how to define a “case” of MSD. Varying the case definition has been shown to alter the description of the prevalence of the disorder. The purpose of this study was to compare the symptom description as well as the burden (disability costs, time off work) of MSD across four different published case definitions. A survey was conducted at a …