Using Peak and Cumulative Spinal Loading to Assess Jobs, Job Rotation and Engineering Controls

Peak and cumulative forces on spinal structures have been identified as significant and statistically independent risk factors for reporting low back pain (LBP). This paper describes a software based approach which utilizes these risk factors to quantitatively predict the reporting of LBP by utilizing a Low Back Pain Reporting Index Score (LBPRI). Two automotive manufacturing jobs were assessed utilizing this approach and these results were utilized in the development of a specific administrative and engineering control. Analysis of the jobs with the controls in place indicated that the administrative control, job rotation, was less effective than assumed and produced an overall increase in the risk of reporting LBP. The engineering control resulted in an overall decrease in the risk of reporting LBP and this beneficial risk reduction would be delivered to any worker that performed this job. The results of this study indicate that both peak and cumulative loading must be considered in order to properly appreciate the risk of injury and the consequences associated with the implementation of administrative and engineering controls

Methodological Issues in Evaluating Workplace Interventions to Reduce Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders Through Mechanical Exposure Reduction

Researchers of work-related musculoskeletal disorders are increasingly asked about the evidentiary base for mechanical exposure reductions. Mixed messages can arise from the different disciplinary cultures of evidence, and these mixed messages make different sets of findings incommensurate. Interventions also operate at different levels within workplaces and result in different intensities of mechanical exposure reduction. Heterogeneity in reporting intervention processes and in measuring relevant outcomes makes the synthesis of research reports difficult. As a means of synthesizing the current understanding of measures, this paper describes a set of intervention and observation nodes for which relevant workplace indicators prior to, during, and after mechanical exposure reduction can provide useful information. On the basis of this path of impacts from exposure reduction, an approach to the evaluation of multilevel ergonomic interventions is described that can assist fellow researchers in producing evidence relevant to the challenges faced by workplace parties and policy makers