Sustainable health in the workplace: active breaks for musculoskeletal symptom management

Background: The working day entails a lot of downtime, causing slight discomfort to temporary - permanent injuries, representing an economic health impact for companies and workers. Active breaks (AB) are proposed as an effective tool to reduce the effects of occupational risks. The objective is to design a AB program as a strategy in the management of musculoskeletal symptoms (MS) in office workers (OW). Methods: This is a longitudinal cohort study with a quantitative approach, involving 26 workers. Based on the review of the evidence and an evaluation with the Nordic Standardized Questionnaire (NSQ) and the Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS), appropriate exercises for the population were established. A program with its respective dosage was designed and it was validated by the judgment of three experts. The content Validity Index (CVI) was used. Results: These revealed a higher frequency of discomfort in the neck, shoulders and thoracolumbar region, decrease in MS in frequency, duration and intensity of both clinical and statistical pain (p<0.001). Conclusions: The AB program, based on yoga, determined changes in the intensity, duration and frequency of the MS. It served as a strategy for MS management.