Workers worldwide experience a range of occupational musculoskeletal disorders that affect both the functionality of many parts of their body and their overall performance. Physiotherapists provide counseling and treatment programs during work. Recently, physiotherapy interventions have been introduced during work breaks. This study aimed to investigate the value of different types of workplace-based exercise programs administered during work breaks and compare them with counseling methods. Electronic searches were performed in relevant databases by keywords such as: workplace, musculoskeletal disorders, sedentary, standing, employees, micro-breaks, exercise interventions, and ergonomics. Initially, 706 articles were identified. An article sorting procedure was employed by two independent researchers, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria set for this study, and after the removal of non-relevant articles (n = 391) or duplicates (n = 300), 15 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) remained for qualitative analysis. The methodological quality of the 13 RCTs was performed using the PEDro scale. No risk of bias evaluation was made. The findings suggested that active micro-breaks that contained various exercise programs including stretching, strengthening, torso stabilization, and ergonomic interventions were more beneficial than passive micro-breaks, reducing pain and the feeling of fatigue and increasing employees' mood. It is concluded that micro-breaks are beneficial to employees with either orthostatic or sedentary work.
Keywords: counseling; ergonomics; exercise; injury prevention; micro-break activities; musculoskeletal pain; work-related musculoskeletal disorders.