عوامل خطر مرتبط با کار در استئوآرتریت دست سالمندان

Background: Aging in the modern society is conjoined with different diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) which causes reduced occupational abilities for people and burden of financial and societal problems on society. Occupational risk factors are among the main risk factors for hand OA. Despite their major effects on daily living of elders, there are different results in the literature considering the occupational risk factors. Objective: Aim of the present study was to review the present evidence on occupational risk factors effective on hand OA.  Materials and Methods: In this systematic review article, articles related to occupational risk factors in hand OA and their effects on functional capacity and occupational abilities of elders since 1980 till present were investigated in data bases including PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, Iran Doc, and SID. Results: In reviewing the literature, two different but interrelated themes were explored relating to the occupational risk factors in hand OA including occupations related to the hand OA and biomechanical factors inside those occupations. People with manual occupations which needed manipulating heavy, large, and vibratory tools such as miners and farmers were at risk of OA in bigger joints of hand such as metacarpophalangeal and wrist; while people with occupations requiring precision and repetitive griping such as dentists and housewives were at risk of OA in smaller joints in the hand such as fingers’ distal interphalangeal and thumb’ carpometacarpal. Biomechanical factors inside those occupations related to the hand OA were a combination of work with heavy tools, excessive repetition, static contractions for a long period, precision grip, power grasp, low variety in tasks, vibration, high level of muscle activity, excessive use of joints, and lack of enough resting time. Conclusion: A special task or occupation cannot trigger hand OA while it is the biomechanical factors inside occupations which makes a hand at risk of OA in long periods. Knowing occupational risk factors for hand OA may help and persuade health team, employers, employees, and workers in preventive screenings and better designing of work and living environments according to the ergonomic principles.