Knee injuries are among the most common, and also the most preventable incidents in the workplace. Knee injuries account for 15-20 percent of injuries that result in time off work, and result in an average of 16 days off. Historically, most knee injuries occur during bouts of manual labour, but more recently, there has been an increase in knee injuries in an office setting. The reasons for this are a higher percentage of the population living a sedentary lifestyle, having a poor diet, and a resulting higher prevalence of obesity, contributing to osteoarthritis and other adverse health conditions. There are several lifestyle and workplace changes that can be made to help avoid knee injuries at work; lifestyle factors such as exercise and diet, and workplace factors such as manual handling training, pre-employment screens, and appropriate use of workplace equipment.
First, let’s break the lifestyle factors down into some proactive strategies that can be implemented to help prevent knee injuries at work, and in general life:
Exercise
One of the most important strategies in preventing knee injury is exercise. There are a number of different ways you can injure your knee, such as unnatural movements like twisting, kneeling, falling, hyperextending, and degeneration leading to osteoarthritis. Exercise helps stabilise and strengthen the muscle surrounding your knee, as well as the knee ligaments and tendons, which in turn stabilises the knee to help prevent injury caused by these movements. Basic exercises like squats, calf raises, and lunges can assist in this prevention, however you should contact a health professional before partaking in any exercise program, to ensure it’s the right program for your individual needs.
Diet and weight management:
Diet and weight management are key components in preventing knee injuries, particularly with degeneration injuries. Every kilo of excess weight adds 4 kilos of added pressure on your knees. Therefore, if you can adopt positive eating habits to maintain a healthy weight, you can reduce the risk of a knee injury.
Next, let’s look a little further into some strategies specific to the workplace:
- Maintain good technique: In workplaces that involve repetitive bending and lifting, complacency with the proper lifting technique is very common. A few simple but highly effective techniques to always keep in mind are:
- Lift within your base of support: Lifting within your base of support involves keeping the item you’re lifting close to your body, and provides more balance and stability. The further you lift outside your base of support, the higher the likelihood of muscle strains, joint sprains, and falling.
- Lift with your legs: A common lifting fault is not bending your knees while lifting and putting excess stress on the lower back, back of your knee, and hamstrings.
- Avoid jerky movements: Jerky movements can lead to strain and sprains through an increase in sudden pressure on your tissues. Lifting with a smoother, more controlled movement reduces the likelihood of these types of injuries.
Safety first:
Before doing any lifting, consider your own personal safety. Ask yourself the following questions before any lift.
- Is it safe to lift on your own? Look at the size and weight of the object you are lifting. If it’s too big and awkward, do not lift it on your own.
- If it’s not safe to lift, can the lift be assisted by equipment? Are there any lifting aids that can be used to make it safer?
- Can someone else help? Is there a work colleague available to assist you with an awkward or heavy lift?
- Is the path clear where items need to be carried to? Analyse the environment, take note of any tripping hazards, including steps. Determine whether some or all of these hazards can be removed or minimised, and/or whether is an alternative way of transporting the objects that is safer.
Listen to your body:
if you start experiencing pain, speak with your workplace or seek help from a health professional as soon as you can. Too often injuries are not reported early enough, and develop into much more serious conditions. Simply seeking help from a medical professional early can result in quicker healing times, less time taken off work, and less time off the things you love to do.