I ask because I’ve suddenly started thinking back to the librarians I know, and whose blogs I read, and the incidence of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus, polymyalgia and fibromyalgia seem to be high.
Am I imagining it?
Do I just hang out with old rickety people? (A: yes)
Demographic correlation? That is: Is there some ethnic bias for training in the library sciences, and that same ethnic group is more prone to rheumatological pathology?
Work-related injury, hefting books, sitting too much, standing at checkouts too often? The ergonomics of book-moving are pretty bad, admittedly.
Something causative? An exposure of some sort? Glue? Mold? Other people’s handprints? Paper sizing?
Maybe I’m imagining it. But a dataset showing incidence rates of RA and OA by job description would be interesting to see. Anybody got one?
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