Development of an ergonomic risk assessment tool for work postures

The most widely used method for assessing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) is still the observational method, mainly because it is inexpensive and practical for use in a wide range of workplaces. However, there are no tools available that cover the wide range of physical risk factors at workplaces. Most of the existing observational methods have not been extensively tested for their reliability and validity during the development process. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to (1) to develop a new observational technique called the Workplace Ergonomic Risk Assessment (WERA) method and (2) to determine the reliability and validity of the WERA method. The study was conducted in two phases: development of the WERA paper checklist from scientific evidence and literature review (Phase 1) and development of the WERA software program using Visual Basic programming (Phase 2). In the validity trials, the relationship of the main WERA body part scores to the development of pain or discomfort was statistically significant for the wrist, shoulder, and back regions. This shows that the WERA assessment provided a good indication of work related musculoskeletal disorders which may be reported as pains, aches or discomfort in the relevant body area. In the reliability trials, the results of inter-observer reliability demonstrated moderate agreement among the observers (K=0.41) from the feedback survey about the usability of WERA tool. On the other hand, all participants were agreed that the WERA tool was easy and quick to use, applicable to workplace assessment for the wide range of tasks, and valuable at work. The WERA tool has been developed for both paper checklist and software program use. It can be used to identify the physical risk factors associated with WMSDs at workplaces

A systematic review for computer based observational techniques for assessing exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders

The objective of this review are to systematically examine the existing techniques of computer based observational method for assessing Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) and analysed them to the needs of different potential users. Articles related are searched and collected from scientific database starting from 1977 to 2016. Seven methods are identified for computer based observational techniques and from these methods, only three methods have been evaluated as the intra-observer reliability and five methods are evaluated as interobserver reliability where the average results are moderate to good agreement. For concurrent validity, five methods have been evaluated with moderate agreement. Some of the risk factors that related with WMSDs are; physical, psychosocial, work organization and individual factors. In addition, these existing techniques did not fulfil the criteria of reliability and validity testing during the development of these methods

Review on pen-and-paper-based observational methods for assessing ergonomic risk factors of computer work

Background: Computer works are associated with Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). There are several methods have been developed to assess computer work risk factor related to MSDs. Objective: This review aims to give an overview of current techniques available for pen-and-paper-based observational methods in assessing ergonomic risk factors of computer work. Methods: We searched an electronic database for materials from 1992 until 2015. The selected methods were focused on computer work, pen-and-paper observational methods, office risk factors and musculoskeletal disorders. This review was developed to assess the risk factors, reliability and validity of pen-and-paper observational method associated with computer work. Two evaluators independently carried out this review. Results: Seven observational methods used to assess exposure to office risk factor for work-related musculoskeletal disorders were identified. The risk factors involved in current techniques of pen and paper based observational tools were postures, office components, force and repetition. From the seven methods, only five methods had been tested for reliability. They were proven to be reliable and were rated as moderate to good. For the validity testing, from seven methods only four methods were tested and the results are moderate. Conclusion: Many observational tools already exist, but no single tool appears to cover all of the risk factors including working posture, office component, force, repetition and office environment at office workstations and computer work. Although the most important factor in developing tool is proper validation of exposure assessment techniques, the existing observational method did not test reliability and validity. Futhermore, this review could provide the researchers with ways on how to improve the pen-and-paper-based observational method for assessing ergonomic risk factors of computer work

Risk assessment of Occupational Safety & Heath (OSH) hazards at small and medium enterprise (SME)

Most of SMEs industries refuse to provide and conduct safety program for the employees in order to cut the budget. Thus, this industries are exposed to the occupational safety and health (OSH) hazards. Therefore performing the Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Risk Control (HIRARC) method are important to control the hazards. The objective of this research was to review occupational safety and health hazards related to small to medium enterprises (SMEs) industry. Besides that, this research conducted to identify the OSH hazards related to the selected SMEs industry using HIRARC method and to propose a suitable risk control to prevent the hazards. The selected SME industries are located in Rompin, Negeri Sembilan in production of cendol. For this research, two method of hazard identification were selected that are workplace inspection and hazard identification checklist. A total of 8 hazards were identified from the production process. 50% of the risk level were classified as low and 50% classified as medium risk level. The most hazardous work activity is related to ergonomic problem that is back pain as most of the activities were repetitive for a long time. As a conclusion, recommendation has been proposed to eliminate the identified hazards such as elimination, engineering control and personal protective equipment based on the hierarchy of risk control

Computer based observational technoques for assessing exposure to risk factors for workrelated musculoskeletal disorders: A review

The aimed of this review is to make an overview of the current techniques for computer based observational methods in assessing Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs).Articles related to computer based observational method for assessing WMSDs are searched and collected from scientific database starting from 1977 to 2016. Seven methods are identified for computer based observational techniques and from these methods, only three methods have been evaluated as the intra-observer reliability and five methods are evaluated as inter-observer reliability where the average results are moderate to good agreement. For concurrent validity, five methods have been evaluated with moderate agreement.There is no method for computer based observational techniques which cover all of the risk factors of WMSDs. In addition, these current techniques did not fulfil the criteria of reliability and validity testing during the development of these methods

Ergonomic risk factors associated with muscuslokeletal disorders in computer workstation

Ergonomics Risk Factors (ERFs) at computer works are commonly related to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) such as repetitive movements, doing work in awkward postures and static postures while prolonged seating at works. The main objective of this study was to investigate the ergonomic risk factors associated with MSDs among employees in computer workstation. In this study, the data were obtained by structured interview using self-reported questionnaire and direct observation. The results show that there is significant association between neck and stress score with musculoskeletal symptoms and among office workers. As a conclusion, by assessing ERFs at workplace, the effectiveness of workplace interventions can be evaluated without waiting for changes in the prevalence of MSDs

A systematic review of ergonomic risk factors associated with computer work-related musculoskeletal disorders in office workstations

This review aims to give an overview of ergonomic risk factors associated with computer work-related musculoskeletal disorders in office workstations. Data from 1990 until 2015 was revised using electronic databases.The overview based on computer work, office risk factors, musculoskeletal disorders, working posture, office components and office environment.Epidemiologic studies show that physical exposure has a moderate and strong association with Computer Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders.Sixteen items of risk factors with significant associations with body part exposure outcomes were identified. Ergonomic risks factors involved awkward postures , repetitive movement, excessive force and office environment.This study describes recommended posture angles as well as appropriate distance between office workers and office equipment

Exposure level of ergonomic risk factors in grocery retail industries

Generally, grocery retail work requires manual material handling tasks that Involve Ergonomic Risk Factors (ERFs) such as posture, repetition and movements. The aim of this study was to examine the level of Ergonomic Risk Factors (ERFs) among material handlers in grocery retail industries. This study was conducted by using two different types of tools which were Workplace Ergonomic Risk Assessment (WERA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) as a direction observation method. For WERA method, results showed most of them experienced high exposure level for leg and contact stress while for REBA method, results showed most of them experienced medium exposure level for upper arm and trunk. From the research conducted, MSDs and ERFs do related as it showed that musculoskeletal disorders may arise if the workers ignored the safety in ergonomic risk factors. Hence, some ergonomic improvements are needed in order to prevent workers from developing MSDs

Investigation of ergonomic risk factors in a car tyre service centre

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ergonomic risk factors, the prevalence of body discomfort among workers and sources of injury/discomfort in a car tyre service centre. Questionnaire survey and interview session was used to identify the level of body discomfort areas and sources of injury or discomfort. Direct observation was performed by “walk through” inspection using digital camera to evaluate and identify ergonomic risk factors based on work activity. From questionnaire survey findings, the twelve (12) of respondents have body discomfort in the neck (8 each), shoulder (10 each), elbow/forearm (9 each), hand/wrist (11 each), knee (7 each), lower leg (7 each) ankle/foot (4 each) and lower back (9 each). The main sources of injury/discomfort in workplace were poor body posture (75%), bending the back (75%), highly repetitive motion (75%), lifting heavy object (83.3%), the long term standing (66.7%), long term squatting (58.3%), bending the neck (66.7%) and high hand force (58.3%). About 50% reported that poor workplace design also contributed to injury while 41.7% reported in use of hand tools. Eight (8) pictures were taken by using digital camera for the eight (8) different tasks to identified the ergonomic physical risk factors. Most of the physical risk factors identified were awkward posture from working with the hands above the shoulders, neck bending, bending the back forward, repeated bending, reaching, squatting and kneeling on the hard surface. Lifting heavy objects more than 10 kg, not wearing a hand gloves and exposed to high hand arm vibration when using high impact wrench (air gun) also contributed to the ergonomic physical risk factor. To address modifying the ergonomic hazards, engineering controls and administrative controls can be used. The study will be useful to ergonomists, researchers, consultants, workshop managers, maintenance workers and others concerned with identifying ergonomic risk factor on the workplace

Survey of body part symptoms among workers in a car tyre service centre

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of body part symptoms and sources of injury/discomfort among workers in a car tyre service centre. Questionnaire survey and interview session were used to identify the level of body discomfort areas and sources of injury or discomfort. From questionnaire survey findings, 12 of respondents have body discomfort in the neck (66.7%), shoulder (83.3%), elbow/forearm (75%), hand/wrist (91.7%), knee (58.3%), lower leg (75%), ankle/foot (33%) and lower back (30%). The main sources of injury/discomfort in the workplace were poor body posture (75%), bending the back (75%), highly repetitive motions (75%), lifting heavy objects (83.3%), the long-term standing (66.7%), long-term squatting (58.3%), bending the neck (66.7%) and high hand force (58.3%). About 50% reported that poor workplace design also contributed to injury while 41.7% mentioned the use of hand tools. To address modifying the ergonomic hazards, engineering controls and administrative controls can be used. The study will be useful to ergonomists, researchers, consultants, workshop managers, maintenance workers and others concerned with identifying body part symptoms and sources of injury/discomfort at the workplace