Women are at least twice as likely as men to develop some musculoskeletal disorders of the upper body, such as lower back pain and carpal tunnel syndrome.

"Any way you slice the data, women have a significantly higher prevalence -- anywhere from two to 10, even 11 times higher than men -- for many of these disorders," Delia Treaster, a former doctoral student at Ohio State University who worked on the study, said in a statement.

"The question now is, why? Is it biomechanical, physiological, psychological, or what?" Treaster continued. "Most likely, it is due to a combination of factors."

Until now, some researches suspected that women only appear to have a higher incidence of these disorders because they are more likely than men to seek treatment. Others thought the gender difference was due to a greater exposure to certain risk factors for women.

Treaster and Deborah Burr, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biometrics, performed a statistical analysis of previous studies to remove factors that could have skewed the results either way.

Their findings appear in the current issue of the journal Ergonomics.

More information

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about carpal tunnel syndrome.

Reference Source 101
July 28, 2004

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