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People with work-related back pain and joint problems should be encouraged to seek help early and stay at work, a report has concluded.

The Work Foundation study argues that most people with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) – a broad range of problems including arthritis, back pain and damage to joints, muscles and tendons – recover more quickly by staying at work.

MSDs cause 9.5 million lost working days and cost society £7.4 billion a year.

As well as helping some people to recover more quickly, the Work Foundation believes early intervention and an emphasis on keeping sufferers in work wherever possible will also boost national productivity and help reduce the 2.6 million people claiming incapacity benefit.

The report also calls for the government to reassess how health agencies coordinate treatment of MSDs and offer small businesses support.

"Work can be both cause and cure," said Michelle Mahdon, senior researcher at the Work Foundation.

"It may cause or aggravate symptoms of MSDs, but evidence is amassing that with the right support arrangements work can also be part of the recovery by contributing to a person's self-esteem and sense of being productive.

"What urgently needs to change is the attitude of many GPs and employers that an MSD sufferer must be 100 per cent well before any return to work can be contemplated. Too many see only incapacity rather than capacity," Ms Mahdon added.

In response to the report the Trades Union Congress warned that MSD sufferers must not simply return to work as that could prove detrimental to their health.

Although TUC health and safety officer Hugh Robertson said there is "a lot in the report that makes a bit of sense", he added: "The idea that with all MSDs you should actually go back to work is not only counter intuitive it can actually be dangerous because you could be sending people back to the same kind of job that actually caused the condition in the first place.

"What everyone should do is they should get proper medical advice," Mr Robertson told BBC Radio Five Live.

Dame Professor Carol Black, the government's national director for health and work, and author of the report's foreword, commented: "I hope that in time MSDs will become less relevant to work and working life.

"Until then, efforts to raise awareness of them must continue with ever greater urgency. I welcome this report as a valuable contribution to the debate."