Background: Complaints of arms, neck and shoulders (CANS) is common among computer office workers. We
evaluated an aetiological model with physical/psychosocial risk-factors.
Methods: We invited 2,500 computer office workers for the study. Data on prevalence and risk-factors of CANS
were collected by validated Maastricht-Upper-extremity-Questionnaire. Workstations were evaluated by
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Visual-Display-Terminal workstation-checklist. Participants’
knowledge and awareness was evaluated by a set of expert-validated questions. A binary logistic regression
analysis investigated relationships/correlations between risk-factors and symptoms.
Results: Sample size was 2,210. Mean age 30.8 ± 8.1 years, 50.8% were males. The 1-year prevalence of CANS was
56.9%, commonest region of complaint was forearm/hand (42.6%), followed by neck (36.7%) and shoulder/arm
(32.0%). In those with CANS, 22.7% had taken treatment from a health care professional, only in 1.1% seeking
medical advice an occupation-related injury had been suspected/diagnosed. In addition 9.3% reported CANSrelated
absenteeism from work, while 15.4% reported CANS causing disruption of normal activities. A majority of
evaluated workstations in all participants (88.4%,) and in those with CANS (91.9%) had OSHA non-compliant
workstations. In the binary logistic regression analyses female gender, daily computer usage, incorrect body
posture, bad work-habits, work overload, poor social support and poor ergonomic knowledge were associated with
CANS and its’ severity In a multiple logistic regression analysis controlling for age, gender and duration of
occupation, incorrect body posture, bad work-habits and daily computer usage were significant independent
predictors of CANS
Conclusions: The prevalence of work-related CANS among computer office workers in Sri Lanka, a developing,
South Asian country is high and comparable to prevalence in developed countries. Work-related physical factors,
psychosocial factors and lack of awareness were all important associations of CANS and effective preventive
strategies need to address all three areas.