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.