Abstract

Introduction: Upper limb musculoskeletal disorders are prevalent and undesirable health consequences among workers in clothing industry. To improve working conditions, workplace ergonomic assessment is necessary. This study was conducted among workers of clothing manufacturing workshops to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and to assess ergonomic working conditions to identify major risk factors associated with musculoskeletal symptoms.Methods: One hundred and fifty female workers from clothing manufacturing workshops of Yazd city participated. The Nordic questionnaire and an ergonomics checklist consisting of 6 sections were used as data collection tools. An index was calculated for each section of the checklist. Action categories indicating the priority of corrective measures were also defined. Data analysis was performed using the ANOVA and ROC curve tests by SPSS software (version 17).Results: The results showed a high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, especially in the upper limbs among the study population. In this study, a significant association was found between the calculated ergonomics index and MSDs in different body regions (p<0.05). The mean of this index among the workers who reported symptoms was less than those of the other group indicating undesirable ergonomic conditions. In addition, 68.7% of the workers were categorized in the first priority of intervention (requiring ergonomic intervention as soon as possible).Conclusion: The prevalence of MSDs was high among the workers of clothing workshops. The developed checklist was considered as an appropriate and low cost tool for ergonomic evaluation of sewing workshops. The results also indicated that most ergonomic problems in these workshops originate from inappropriate general working conditions, work organization, manual material handling, hand tools, workstation and working post

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.