Carpal tunnel syndrome and other wrist/hand symptoms and signs in male and female car assembly workers

Abstract This study of 564 car assembly workers, 440 men and 124 women doing the same work, focused on subjective symptoms and physical examination signs from the wrist/hand. Attempts to find specific exposure factors of importance were also made. Women had more subjective symptoms from the wrist/hand and physical signs from joints, tendons and nerves than the men. No anthropometric measures, i.e. wrist diameters, height, weight or body mass index explained the signs. There were correlations between female sex, smoking and signs indicative of carpal tunnel syndrome. In a subset of 15 workers, there were no cases with lowered nerve conduction velocity, but 4 with decreased thermotest threshold among those with numbness, Phalen's or Tinel's signs. Relevance to industry Quality in production is partly dependent on healthy workers with high work satisfaction and low absenteeism. The musculoskeletal side of ergonomics is less well understood and more difficult to measure, than e.g. mechanic, toxic, noise and illumination factors. The study showed the specific kinds of problems that occur in an assembly plant, rather than nonspecific terms like overexertion injury, cumulative trauma disorder, etc.