Applicability of the Assessment Tool for Unstructured and Unregulated Work to Assessing Office Ergonomics

Abstract

The prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) continues to increase among office workers. Appropriate and easy quantification of the predisposing factors are essential in developing and implementing interventions to prevent WMSD in this population. This requires the use of assessment methods that provide elaborate estimation of workers’ exposure to identified risk factors rather than an abridged sample of their work routine. This study tests with five bank tellers the Ergonomic Assessment tool for Unstructured and unregulated Work (EAUW) originally developed to provide duration and frequency estimations of risk factors in informal, non-routine work. The goal of this case study is to demonstrate the EAUW’s usefulness and applicability in office ergonomics assessment. The results indicate that the principles governing the EAUW (real time coding of risk factors) are applicable to office work assessment and promises to provide detailed estimation of risk factors when compared to existing job analysis tools.