[Musculoskeletal disorders among employees in building and construction industry].

A questionnaire was distributed to 2,696 employees in the construction industry in order to determine the prevalence of subjectively experienced musculoskeletal strain in four regions of the body. A total of 40.3% of the employees had pain at the time of questioning. The percentage of the employees with complaints increases gradually with age, but least for backache. A comparison of different age groups of employees in two occupations reveals that carpenters in the age group 30-40 years have more than ten times as many musculoskeletal disorders in their arms and hands as office workers in the same age group. We presume that more than 90% of these disorders are caused by factors in the working environment. The author concludes that it is important to continuously collect information on musculoskeletal disorders among workers, and analyze all the data systematically.