LONDON, September 7 /PRNewswire/ --

- Report Says Most Sufferers of Musculoskeletal Disorders
(MSDs) Recover More Quickly by Staying at Work

- Employers and GPs Should 'Focus on What People Can do' Rather
Than Incapacity

- Government Needs to Give a Higher Priority to Tackling MSDs by
Improving GP Awareness and Access to Treatment, and by Supporting
Employers With Occupational Health

'Musculoskeletal disorders' (MSDs) - an umbrella term that covers over
200 different ailments including arthritis, back pain and damage to joints,
muscles and tendons - affect twice as many people as 'stress', account for up
to a third of all GP consultations, cause 9.5 million lost working days, and
cost society GBP7.4bn a year.

These are the main findings of a new report from The Work Foundation into
the economic and social impact of MSDs - by far the most prevalent cause of
work-related illness in the UK.

The report argues that early intervention and an emphasis on keeping
sufferers in work wherever possible are likely to boost national productivity
and help reduce the 2.6 million people claiming Incapacity Benefit. 'There is
overwhelming evidence that worklessness is, itself, bad for health,' the
report says.

The government needs to urgently rethink how health agencies co-ordinate
treatment of MSDs, offer greater support to small businesses, and give a
higher priority to understanding the labour market impact of MSDs as part of
its Work, Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the report recommends.

MSDs affect all kinds of industries and occupations - in particular
health and social care, the construction and building trades, transport and
machine drivers, process plant and machine operatives, and caring personal
service occupations. However, people affected by an MSD are also likely to
have mental health problems as well. The chances of a swift return to work
after an MSD-related absence is increased if people have positive mental
health and support from employers and family.

Michelle Mahdon, senior researcher at The Work Foundation, said: 'Stress
hogs headlines, but in terms of people affected, MSDs are the bigger problem,
affecting more than a million people a year - and, of course, their families.

'Work can be both cause and cure. It may cause or aggravate symptoms of
MSDs, but evidence is amassing that with the right support arrangements work
can also be part of the recovery by contributing to a person's self-esteem
and sense of being productive. What urgently needs to change is the attitude
of many GPs and employers that an MSD sufferer must be 100 per cent well
before any return to work can be contemplated. Too many see only incapacity
rather than capacity.'

The onset of an MSD may harm a person's work performance by affecting
stamina, concentration, mood, mobility and agility.

However, the report urges GPs and employers to look beyond immediate
physical symptoms in their management of MSDs. The 'biopsychosocial model' of
health - which emphasises the interplay between biological (eg. disease,
strain, joint damage), psychological (eg. disposition, anxiety) and social
(eg. work demands, family support) factors - represents a 'helpful' way of
assessing causes and planning treatment and rehabilitation.

Dame Professor Carol Black, the government's National Director for Health
and Work, and author of the report's foreword, said: 'I hope that in time
MSDs will become less relevant to work and working life. Until then, efforts
to raise awareness of them must continue with ever greater urgency. I welcome
this report as a valuable contribution to the debate.'

The report examined four conditions in detail. These are:

- Back pain: a non-specific condition (meaning no specific
diagnosis is given) usually involving short episodes of pain. At any one
time, 33 per cent of the UK population suffers with back pain.

- Work-related Upper Limb Disorders: Another non-specific set of
conditions which affect over 375,000 people.

- Rheumatoid Arthritis: A specific condition which affects almost
400,000 people in the UK with 12,000 new cases each year. It is estimated
that almost a quarter of RA sufferers stop work within five years of
diagnosis.

- Ankylosing Spondylitis: a progressive and chronic rheumatic
disorder that mainly affects the spine, but can also affect other joints,
tendons and ligaments; it is most often diagnosed among men in their
early twenties. Over 200,000 people visit their GP with AS every year.

The report calls for:

- Early intervention: long periods away from work are usually
bad for patients. Partnerships between patient, employer and GP can
achieve a balance between an individual's need for respite and the need
to work. For some MSD patients early access to physiotherapy or to drug
therapies can reduce the severity, impact or progression of the
condition.

- Better job design: managers can change the ways work is organised

- from adjusting working time, altering task allocation, to improving
ergonomics.

- Enhanced measurement of direct and indirect costs of MSDs: much
better mechanisms to assess and monitor the social and work impact of
MSDs are needed. The National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence (NICE) should take into account labour market impacts when
examining the economic effectiveness of different therapies. For example,
whether a patient can be kept in work and off Incapacity Benefit may
drastically affect decisions about the cost effectiveness of drug
therapies.

Notes to Editors

1. 'Fit for Work: Musculoskeletal Disorders and Labour Market
Participation' by Stephen Bevan, Eleanor Passmore and Michelle Mahdon is
available from The Work Foundation.

2. Michelle Mahdon is available for interview.

3. The best calculation of the cost of MSDs to society comes from the
Health and Safety Executive, which put the cost at GBP5.7 billion in 1995-6
(see Health and Safety Statistics, 2005-6, HSE). Uprated for RPI inflation
using the Office for National Statistics recommended methodology results in
GBP7.4 billion.

4. The project was supported by Abbott, the healthcare company.

5. Some individual case studies of MSD sufferers are available on
request.