The effects of exercise reminder software program on office workers’ perceived pain level, work performance and quality of life

Abstract

In direct proportion to current technological developments, both the computer usage in the workplaces is increased and requirement of leaving the desk for an office worker in order to photocopy a document, send or receive an e-mail is decreased. Therefore, office workers stay in the same postures accompanied by long periods of keyboard usage. In recent years, with intent to reduce the incidence of work related musculoskeletal disorders several exercise reminder software programs have been developed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the exercise reminder software program on office workers’ perceived pain level, work performance and quality of life. 39 healthy office workers accepted to attend the study. Participants were randomly split in to two groups, control group (n = 19) and intervention group (n = 20). Visual Analogue Scale to evaluate the perceived pain was administered all of the participants in the beginning and at the end of the study. The intervention group used the program for 10 weeks. Findings showed that the control group VAS scores remained the same, but the intervention group VAS scores decreased in a statistically significant way (p < 0.01). Results support that such exercise reminder software programs may help to reduce perceived pain among office workers. Further long term studies with more subjects are needed to describe the effects of these programs and the mechanism under these effects.