A Decade Update on the Musculoskeletal Health of Office Employees in Hong Kong

The study was conducted to investigate the musculoskeletal health condition of office workers in Hong Kong, which included comparing past studies in a decade and understanding the trend of occupational health issues of office workers. Among the study samples, about 95% of them spent over six hours working on computing work, and approximately 75% reported musculoskeletal symptoms since 2015. The alarming results reminded us that the neck, lower back, and shoulders were the most commonly reported discomfort. The recent results of office workers working from home also reported that 83% of homeworkers worked with computers for six hours a day or longer, with 63% reporting musculoskeletal symptoms. For office workers and homeworkers, the neck, shoulder, and back were the three predominant body regions that suffered from discomfort. The top concern of musculoskeletal symptoms of office workers was shoulder (74%) but neck (51.4%) for homeworkers, possibly due to the high percentage of homeworkers who used laptop computers. Furthermore, among office workers and homeworkers suffering from musculoskeletal discomfort, 18% and 26% required medical consultation. Office-based employees’ overall musculoskeletal health conditions have been the same high concern in the last decade, and the homeworker's statistics highlighted the new occupational health information on WFH conditions.