Role of contributing factors on health risks of whole-body vibration exposure of heavy equipment and vehicle operators: A critical review

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Whole-body vibration (WBV) is a recognized health hazard that primarily affects the musculoskeletal system of human beings. Although research works on WBV are documented, for the past few decades or so, researchers are still attempting to explore the role of contributing factors of WBV for the causation of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Therefore, this paper synthesizes up-to-date knowledge on WBV with respect to measurement methods, critical vibration magnitudes, contributing factors, and effects on human health. The present review is based on PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes) that includes 112 studies on WBV exposure and its contributing factors. It also summarizes the contributing factors of MSDs that include personal factors, environmental factors, machine-related factors, and WBV exposure of the heavy vehicles and equipment operators across various industries. Most of the studies reported lower back pain as the most common MSDs experienced by the vehicle operators exposed to WBV, followed by upper back pain. However, it is apparent from the prevailing literature that musculoskeletal health risks do not result from exposure to WBV alone. The role of multivariate contributing factors should also be considered, analyzed, assessed, and understood to establish correlations between these factors with the development of MSDs. In addition to the measurement and assessment of WBV as per the ISO guidelines to evaluate the potential and likely health risks faced by the heavy equipment operators, researchers should also focus on studying various impacts of WBV, and understanding the role of its contributing factors on human health using advanced machine learning tools.