NEW statistics have prompted a health warning urging Australians to correct their poorly set up home workspaces to avoid any physical injuries that may be caused by unsafe workspace practices.
Due to living with COVID-19 for the past three years, the majority of Australians have worked in hybrid settings shared between home and office locations with new data revealing they may be risking their health by not working in ergonomically correct workspaces.
Dr David Cahill, chiropractor and president of the Australian Chiropractors Association (ACA) said: “With more Australians working from home than ever before, those using computers at home who are not correctly set up in an ergonomic workspace, may be risking their spinal health and overall wellbeing.”
“While a by-product of the pandemic has seen working from home become normalised, the results of our recent surveys show alarming statistics that many Australians are yet to adjust to this ‘new normal’ and may be risking their health because they haven’t adopted safe work habits at home,” Dr Cahill said.
New research of 1,003 adult respondents nationally, showed more than one third (34%) of Australians said they’d been working from home with the majority (70%) planning to continue to do so, even after restrictions lifted.
Many of those working from home reported they worked at their dining table (33%), 16% worked from bed and 15% worked from their sofa rather than at a desk.
While 67% reported that since working from home the hours spent working at their computers had increased.
Chiropractors reported 89% of patients saying they had increased neck and shoulder stiffness due to poor ergonomic workspaces .
While 41% reported an increase in patient stress levels due to greater workloads and longer working hours.
“Implementing positive spinal health habits including using an ergonomic office chair, adjusting your laptop to eye level and positioning your knees slightly below your hips when sitting, are all important factors in preventing spinal injuries when working from anywhere,” said Dr Cahill.
