Psychosocial factors, musculoskeletal symptoms, and presenteeism among labor judges

Introduction: Labor judges are subjected to productivity goals associated with a workload that does not take into consideration the complexity of their work. Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between psychosocial factors, musculoskeletal problems, and presenteeism among labor judges. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 151 judges who answered a sociodemographic and occupational characterization questionnaire and the Brazilian versions of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, Health and Safety Executive - Indicator Tool, and Stanford Presenteeism Scale. The results underwent a descriptive analysis and Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated. Results: The psychosocial dimension of demands presented a higher risk of occupational stress, while role had a lower risk. Musculoskeletal problems in the neck, upper back, shoulders, and lower back were more common and affected almost 70% of the participants. Presenteeism was more affected by the avoiding distractions dimension. Almost all psychosocial dimensions had a significant correlation with musculoskeletal symptoms (p < 0.05), especially demands, which also was correlated with total presenteeism and the avoiding distractions dimension. Conclusions: The work overload observed among labor judges was related to the occurrence of musculoskeletal problems and to a high prevalence of presenteeism.