Low typing endurance in keyboard workers with work-related upper limb disorder

OBJECTIVE To compare results of typing endurance and pain before and after a standardized functional test. DESIGN A standardized previously published typing test on a standard QWERTY keyboard. SETTING An outpatient hospital environment. PARTICIPANTS Sixty-one keyboard and mouse operating patients with WRULD and six normal controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Pain severity before and after the test, typing endurance and speed were recorded. RESULTS Thirty-two patients could not complete the test before pain reached VAS 5 and this group only typed a mean of 11 minutes. The control group and the remaining group of 29 patients completed the test. Two-tailed student T test was used for evaluation. The endurance was significantly shorter in the patient group that could not complete the test (P < 0.00001) and the pain levels were also higher in this group both before (P = 0.01) and after the test (P = 0.0003). Both patient groups had more pain in the right than the left hand, both before and after typing. CONCLUSIONS Low typing endurance correlates statistically with more resting pain in keyboard and mouse operators with work-related upper limb disorder and statistically more pain after a standardized typing test. As the right hands had higher pain levels, typing alone may not be the cause of the pain as the left hand on a QWERTY keyboard does relative more keystrokes than the right hand.