Physical Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Disorders: What's hot? What's cool?

This chapter discusses the physical ergonomics and musculoskeletal disorders and summarizes the Triennial International Ergonomics Association (IEA) World Congress 2006-IEA2006-highlights on physical ergonomics and work-related MusculoSkeletal Disorders (MSDs). Two general trends are observed. Firstly, physical ergonomics is positively influenced by other disciplines, such as occupational epidemiology. Interventions are more often evaluated in well-designed epidemiological studies, when compared with earlier IEA congresses. However, there were fewer presentations of biomechanical and physiological studies on underlying mechanisms in IEA2006 than before. Secondly, modern work has changed and so has physical ergonomics, focusing on MSDs. Many contributions involved computer use. Several trends as to diversity are observed. Unfortunately, there are striking differences among countries in ergonomic state-of-the-art. Too much disparity is observed between scientific research from academics and case studies from ergonomic consultants. Ergonomists seem to be increasingly aware of the diversity in worker populations. Attention is paid to topics, such as gender and work, ageing workers and people with disabilities, as well as diversity and variation of physical exposures. For the future, a further collaboration is expected between researchers performing experimental laboratory studies and those performing epidemiological field studies. It also foresees a further increase in well-designed, high-quality evaluation studies with a cost-benefit analysis from the company perspective. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.