ABSTRACT
This study compares movements performed by healthy and workers with musculoskeletal disordes when executing a sequence of simple handling tasks. Ninety eight industrial workers, 49 healthy and 49 suffers, were recruited after being screened for musculosketal disorders. The disorders were classified into progressive stages, according to the severity of the symptomsand physical sigs. There were significant differences between suffers and healthy workers when comparing individual and occupational aspects. A particular movement performed only by the workers with symptoms was identified from the video analysis, and was associated with the progressive stages of the disorders (p<0,05), and with sick-leave (p<0,01). The relation between these particular movement and the progressive stages of the disorder, may suggest that the movements are performed as a compensation for pain and reduction of upper limb strength.
