Back pain, muscular strain and arthritis are the most common work-related illnesses in Ireland and account for half of all sick days taken by workers each year, a report has found.
The study found musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) - an umbrella term for more than 200 different ailments including arthritis, back pain and damage to joints, muscles and tendons - affected twice as many people as stress, accounted for up to a third of all GP visits, and cost the economy €750 million annually.
It said many people with MSDs experienced "damaging delays" in diagnosis and were often wrongly advised to take time off work or even to leave their job.
The Fit For Workreport, published today by the London-based research group Work Foundation with the support of Arthritis Ireland, is part of an international study of 25 countries which examined the relationship between MSDs and labour market participation.
Up to 80 per cent of the adults will experience significant back pain at some point in their lives, the report said, while nearly two-thirds of workers regularly suffer muscular pain in the neck, shoulders or upper limbs.
There are 714,000 people in Ireland with some form of arthritis and one quarter of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers stop work within five years of diagnosis.
The report said many people with these complaints did not need to take extended time off work and may be hampering their recovery by doing so.
While the physical conditions of work may aggravate symptoms, in some cases, there was "compelling evidence” that work can often help ameliorate the deterioration of many conditions and aid recovery.
"Many GPs and employers mistakenly believe workers with MSDs must be 100 per cent well before any return to work can be contemplated," the report said.
But people who spent long periods away from work with MSD complaints found it more difficult to return and left themselves vulnerable to depression and anxiety, which can affect the severity of the condition.
The report noted a significant number of GPs, employers and MSD sufferers did not fully appreciate the impact of stress on the severity of their physical incapacity.
It also identified a "lack of capacity" on the part of some employers to deal with employee sickness as well as a low awareness among workers about how to manage their condition.
Work Foundation managing director Stephen Bevan said GPs, employers and employees can "catastrophise" these complaints "imagining their effects to be far more serious or insurmountable than is the case".
"Good work can be really good for people's health. So by getting people out of the labour market because we think its doing them damage, we can actually be doing them more harm and making it difficult for them to get back into work," he said.
The report said that while the number of Irish workers with a long-standing illness was lower than the European Union average, this was largely down to the younger age profile of the workforce. It warned the incidence and effects of MSDs would intensify in the coming decades as the workforce aged and obesity levels increased.
Early invention was vital to recovery and workforce participation, especially in the case of inflammatory diseases, such a rheumatoid arthritis where advances in drug therapy can significantly stall the progression of the disease.
Most employees with MSDs can continue to work in some capacity if they are allowed and GPs should consider issuing 'fit notes' instead of 'sick notes' to guide employers on what the worker was still able to do at work, it said.
