Back Care Awareness Week 05-10 October 2020
The OH team have dealt with lots of queries on musculoskeletal problems related to working from home since March this year. As a result of these we have carried out many remote consultations, either by Teams or telephone. The former really help because the camera can usually be moved so we can see how a person is working.
Everyone we speak to appears to realise the importance of good chair support. Often, people have gone to Campus to pick up their chair to use at home. If they have not been able to do this, or if they do not have space at home to fit in a full size DSE chair, it is possible to sort out good support with cushions on a dining room chair.
However, few people seem to make the connection between why the chair is so important to working ergonomically and safely and applying those principles to how they work. The fully adjustable DSE chair is important because it gives support along the length of the back and allows the person to raise or lower it to the correct height in relation to the work surface. The correct height is where the forearms, wrists and hands are level with or just above the work surface.
If the chair is positioned in such a way that a person is leaning forward of the back rest to work, then it is not providing support along it’s length and the person will start to experience pain at some point in the back. The most common site of the pain is the low back; this is because it is the fulcrum, or pivotal point, of where the person is leaning forward. There are 2 common reasons that someone ends up leaning or sitting forward of the back rest when they are working: they have the arm-rests in an upright position on the chair and this prevents them getting close enough to the work surface; the space underneath the desk or work area is too low or too narrow and they cannot get their knees and legs into that space.
If someone works at the wrong height in relation to their work area, their forearms will be incorrectly positioned, that is, the hands and wrists will be below or above the level of the work area; when this occurs they will probably develop wrist, elbow or shoulder problems. If the arm level is too low this can lead to hunching of the shoulders and acute, sharp, bending at the elbows and wrists. It can also mean that the person is leaning or pressing down on the work surface continually while working and this can cause pressure on any of the joints involved; it can also lead to leaning forward of the chair support. If the working height is too high this usually leads to leaning forward as well; when this happens it usually means the person actively rests onto the wrists while working and this can lead to particularly painful symptoms.
Follow this link to some Posturite infographics ( Picture 4) which shows the too low, too high and correct height positioning.
One final thing about armrests: they are not there to support you while you are working. This goes for typing and mouse work. The latter can be particularly common. If you rest your arm and elbow on an armrest while using the mouse you significantly impede the action of the joints and exert a lot of pressure on them at the same time. The best position for an armrest when you are typing or using a mouse is retracted backwards, out of the way. You can bring them back up if you are in a meeting and only interacting via the screen.
There is plenty of advice available on the University’s websites on DSE set up and ergonomics; please see the links below.
OH webpages on Upper Limb Disorders
Setting Up Your Workstation At Home (University webpage)