Psychosocial factors and shoulder symptom development among workers

Background Shoulder injuries are a common cause of pain and discomfort. Many work-related factors have been associated with the onset of shoulder symptoms. The psychosocial concepts in the demand–control model have been studied in association with musculoskeletal symptoms but with heterogeneous findings. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between the psychosocial concepts of the demand–control model and the incidence of shoulder symptoms in a working population. Methods After following 424 subjects for approximately 1 year, 85 incident cases were identified from self-reported data. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to assess the associations between shoulder symptoms and demand–control model quadrants. Results Cases were more likely to be female and report other upper extremity symptoms at baseline (P