Healthcare professionals perform daily activities that can lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The objective of this review was to summarize these MSDs by body areas in relation to healthcare professions. The underlying question is, worldwide, whether there are areas that are more exposed depending on the occupation or whether there are common areas that are highly exposed to MSDs. This issue has been extended to risk factors and responses to reduce MSDs. The review was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines between February and May 2022. Google scholar and Science Direct databases were scanned to identify relevant studies. Two authors independently reviewed, critically appraised, and extracted data from these studies. Overall and body area prevalence, risk factors, and responses to MSDs were synthetized by occupational activity. Among the 21,766 records identified, 36 covering six healthcare professions were included. The lower back, neck, shoulder and hand/wrist were the most exposed areas for all healthcare professionals. Surgeons and dentists presented the highest prevalence of lower back (>60%), shoulder and upper extremity (35–55%) MSDs. The highest prevalence of MSDs in the lower limbs was found for nurses (>25%). The main causes reported for all healthcare professionals were maintenance and repetition of awkward postures, and the main responses were to modify these postures. Trends by continent seem to emerge regarding the prevalence of MSDs by healthcare profession. Africa and Europe showed prevalence three times higher than Asia and America for lower back MSDs among physiotherapists. African and Asian nurses presented rates three times higher for elbow MSDs than Oceanians. It becomes necessary to objectively evaluate postures and their level of risk using ergonomic tools, as well as to adapt the work environment to reduce exposure to MSDs with regard to the specificities of each profession.

The prevailing hypothesis about grasping in primates stipulates an evolution from power towards precision grips in hominids. The evolution of grasping is far more complex, as shown by analysis of new morphometric and behavioural data. The latter concern the modes of food grasping in 11 species (one platyrrhine, nine catarrhines and humans). We show that precision grip and thumb‐lateral behaviours are linked to carpus and thumb length, whereas power grasping is linked to second and third digit length. No phylogenetic signal was found in the behavioural characters when using squared‐change parsimony and phylogenetic eigenvector regression, but such a signal was found in morphometric characters. Our findings shed new light on previously proposed models of the evolution of grasping. Inference models suggest that Australopithecus, Oreopithecus and Proconsul used a precision grip.

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are one of the most important problems among physiotherapists worldwide. However, there is no meta-analysis of the MSD prevalence in all body areas among physiotherapists. Objectives: The purpose was to investigate and estimate the worldwide prevalence of MSD among physiotherapists using a systematic review-, meta-analysis and meta-regression. Methods: The systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression were performed in 2022 using the PRISMA guidelines. Data sources: The search was performed on PubMed/Medline, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Medeley and Science.gov databases. Study appraisal: The quality appraisal of the included articles was assessed using the critical appraisal tool for cross-sectional studies AXIS. Results: A total of 722 articles were found. After screening and comparison with the inclusion criteria, 26 studies were retained. Based on the random-effects model, the worldwide MSD prevalence in neck, upper back, mid back, lower back, shoulders, elbows, wrists/hands, thumb, hips/thighs, knees/legs, and ankles/feet was 26.4% (CI 95%: 21.0–31.9%), 17.7% (CI 95%: 13.2–22.2%), 14.9% (CI 95%: 7.7–22.1%), 40.1% (CI 95%: 32.2–48.0%), 20.8% (CI 95%: 16.5–25.1), 7.0% (CI 95%: 5.2–8.9), 18.1% (CI 95%: 14.7–21.5%), 35.4% (CI 95%: 23.0–47.8), 7.0% (CI 95%: 5.2–8.8), 13.0% (CI 95%: 10.3–15.8), and 5% (CI 95%: 4.0–6.9) respectively. The neck and shoulder prevalence of four continents were close to the world prevalence. No effect of continent was found on MSD prevalence. The heterogeneity of the results obtained in the meta-analysis and meta-regression was discussed. Conclusions: Based on the random effects model, the results of the worldwide meta-analysis showed that lower back pain, thumb, neck and shoulder were the area most at risk for MSD and were therefore those to be monitored as a priority. Recommendations were proposed for future reviews and meta-analyses.