What can musicians’ claims data reveal about their musculoskeletal conditions?

Abstract

Musculoskeletal (MSK) symptoms are common amongst professional musicians. No study has reported on workers’ compensation claims (WCCs) of musicians to determine the proportion of claims and costs attributed to MSK conditions. We analyzed Australian WCCs for professional musicians 2004/2005–2015/2016. MSK conditions accounted for 69.78% of claims; 50.46% of which were for upper limb conditions. MSK conditions also accounted for 77.76% of costs for musicians’ WCC. The most common reported mechanism for MSK claims was body stressing (72.48%), and the most common agency was “other non-powered equipment” (including musical instruments; 39.71%), which also accounted for 51.27% of upper limb claims specifically. For the first time, we showed that MSK conditions account for the majority of musicians’ WCC, and the majority of the cost of claims, making them the biggest health issue for professional musicians.

Keywords:

• Burden
• compensation
• cost
• injury
• musculoskeletal
• musicians

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Safe Work Australia for supplying the data used in this study. JS is the recipient of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, and a SafeWork SA WHS Supplementary Scholarship (funded by the South Australian Government). SafeWork SA and the South Australian Government do not endorse the content of this material and the views expressed herein do not represent the views of SafeWork SA or the South Australian Government.

Disclosure statement

No conflicts of interest.

Data availability

Data can be obtained from Safe Work Australia.