Ergonomic Changes Research Articles

Study protocol and baseline results for a quasi-randomized control trial: An investigation on the effects of ergonomic interventions on work-related musculoskeletal disorders, quality of work-life and productivity in knowledge-based companies

IntroductionWork-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are the major causes of lost workdays, increased costs, and occupational diseases in all countries. The prevalence of WMSDs among the workers in small and medium-sized enterprises in Iran was reported as 73%. This paper aimed to describe the design of an interventional study to investigate the effects of ergonomic interventions on work-related musculoskeletal disorders, quality of work-life, and productivity among office workers of knowledge-based companies and introduce the results obtained from the baseline survey. Methods/designIt was a quasi-randomized control trial study on 313 participants with four parallel groups including ergonomic training intervention; management training and work changes intervention; ergonomic training, management training and work changes intervention; and non-interventional control group. The primary outcome was WMSDs, and the secondary outcomes were occupational stress factors, quality of work-life, and productivity. All primary and secondary outcomes were measured before the interventions, one, three, and six months after the interventions. ResultsAt this phase of study only baseline results were reported. 328 participants, with a mean age of 31.97 years (SD = 5.39), completed the baseline survey and entered the study. The highest prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was found in neck (52.13%), right shoulder (41.16%) and right forearm (37.2%), respectively. ConclusionErgonomic interventions were conducted based on baseline data of the participants at individual and management levels. The focus of training program interventions was to reduce musculoskeletal disorders in upper limbs; in management training and work changes program, the focus was to increase social support. Trial registrationIRCT registration number: IRCT20181204041840N1 (date of registration: 2019-02-05).

Neuropsychological Aspects of Focal Dystonia in Musicians

Abstract. Musician’s dystonia (MD) is a focal, task-specific neurological movement disorder that presents with loss of voluntary motor control when playing the instrument and affects up to 1–2 % of professional musicians. The current pathophysiological understanding of MD is that of a network disease, involving the sensorimotor cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum and the limbic system. Various extrinsic factors, e.g. high temporal and spatial sensorimotor constraints on the instrument or more than 10 000 hours of accumulated practice time, as well as intrinsic factors, e.g. high levels of anxiety and perfectionism, and even genetic factors have been identified to increase the risk to develop MD. From a neuropsychological point of view, two phenotypes of MD can be distinguished with high or low psychological stress, which should be taken into account to adapt the individual therapy. Treatment options for MD include medication with trihexyphenidyl, local injections of botulinum toxin A, retraining, ergonomic changes of the instrument, and in patients with high psychological stress also antidepressants and behavioral therapy.

Sacroiliitis in cancer patients: a review of current literature.

The sacroiliac (SI) joint can be directly jeopardized by malignancy and indirectly by ergonomic changes of pelvic obliquity that introduces uneven weight distribution. Cancer treatment can exacerbate preexisting arthritis and cause diffuse arthropathies, but these are unlikely to be isolated to the SI joint. The cancer population is exposed to unique stressors that might facilitate development of SI joint pain that includes cancer itself and therapy-related complications. Like the general population, cancer patients are subject to aging and BMI and musculoskeletal structural changes that affect symmetric body functioning and posturing. No frank association between sacroiliitis and cancer has been identified. Therefore, we believe there is a need to characterize any relationship between cancer and SI joint dysfunction and pain.

Musculoskeletal pain and ergonomic risks in teachers of a federal institution.

Introduction:Ergonomic risks are a major health hazard for teachers, causing musculoskeletal pain and decreasing both their quality of life and the quality of the education offered to students.Objectives:To evaluate musculoskeletal pain and ergonomic risk factors in the workplace of teachers at the São Bento do Sul Campus of the Instituto Federal Catarinense.Methods:Twenty-five teachers completed sociodemographic and ergonomic risk questionnaires, as well as the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. The furniture and equipment at their workstations were also evaluated using a checklist.Results:Seventy two percent of teachers were male, and the mean age of the sample was 37.08±7.14 years. In response to the questionnaires, 72% of participants reported little knowledge of ergonomics and 68% said they did not apply these principles in their daily life. The main ergonomic risks to which teachers were exposed were prolonged sitting and standing, sharp corners on desks, use of laptop touchpads and inadequate monitor height. All teachers reported pain in the past 12 months, with the most frequently affected areas being the low back (60%), neck (56%) and shoulders (48%).Conclusions:These findings highlight the importance of ergonomic adaptations and changes in the work habits of teachers in order to improve their health and quality of life, while also allowing them to deliver higher-quality education to their students.

Do Changes in Classroom Ergonomics Affect Learning

Do Changes in Classroom Ergonomics Affect Learning

Comparison of musculoskeletal pain prevalence between medical and surgical specialty residents in a major hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Objectives: Musculoskeletal disorders are an occupational hazard between physicians. Physicians whose practice involves physical undertakings, such as surgeons, are prone to musculoskeletal pain, which can lead to decreased productivity. This study aimed to compare surgical and nonsurgical specialties musculoskeletal pain prevalence, as well as assess whether certain factors contribute to their pain. Methods: A cross-sectional study that utilized a self-administered questionnaire handed out to 140 conveniently selected surgical and nonsurgical residents at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh. The questionnaire included a demographics section and a section inquiring about nine anatomical areas derived from the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Results: The mean age was 27 years old, and 79% were male. Surgical residents comprised 39% (n = 55) of the participants. Of all the residents, 82.9% (n = 116) suffered from a musculoskeletal complaint, with the majority involving the lower back (53%). Surgical residents were more likely to take time off work (16% vs. 4%) and attributed their pain to their profession (38% vs. 15%). Lower back pain was related positively to body mass index (P = 0.04). Multivariate logistical regression revealed that being a surgeon (odds ratio [OR] = 5.08 and confidence interval [CI] = 0.27–94.14) and spending time doing interventional procedures (10 h; OR = 0.97 and CI = 0.05–18.61) are predisposing factors to musculoskeletal pain. Conclusion: Ergonomic changes are needed to enhance productivity and decrease time off work. Surgical residents need to be aware of the risk of experiencing musculoskeletal pain and be educated on ways to avoid or cope with their pain.

Patient Perceptions of the Caring Environment

As technology at the point of care increases to ensure greater efficiency, effectiveness and patient safety, the impact of such technology needs to be explored for impact on patient perception of the caring environment. The evidence based practice pilot project based on the Iowa Model sought to answer if an ergonomic change in use surrounding technology improved patient perceptions of the caring environment.

Biomechanical risk assessment during field loading of hydraulic stretchers into ambulances

The process of loading a stretcher into an ambulance is known to cause a high incidence of back injuries among paramedics. This study aimed to assess the forces at L5/S1 during real-life stretcher loading activities and to determine the variables that contribute significantly to these forces. Analyses involved 58 paramedics (111 shifts) and 175 stretcher loading activities. Estimates of compression and shear forces at L5/S1 were calculated using the 3DSSPP program. Seventy-one percent of loading activities exceeded the safe loading level of 3.4 kN compression force at L5/S1 (mean: 3.9 kN, min–max: 2.1–7.0 kN). About 92% of the variance can be predicted from a combination of several variables, notably hand load (mean: 0.72 kN/number of paramedics) and back sagittal flexion (mean: 32°). Recommendations to reduce the risk of back injuries are proposed with regard to stretcher and ambulance loading design as well as training in stretcher lifting for paramedics. Relevance to the industryThe results of this study suggest that ambulance stretcher manufacturers should make ergonomic design changes to reduce the physical strain on paramedics’ backs during the process of loading a stretcher into an ambulance. Other preventive measures (e.g., training) must be formulated and applied to reduce the risk of back musculoskeletal disorders during the loading of stretcher patients. For instance, training should focus on back posture, teamwork and equipment/patient positioning on stretchers.

Creating a climate for ergonomic changes in the construction industry.

Ergonomic solutions that have gained acceptance in other industries are often considered not applicable to a construction work environment, even though the industry is characterized by high physical work demands. We conducted 50 key informant interviews with 23 contractor representatives and 27 union staff, plus 4 focus groups with a total of 48 workers. Many workers hold the belief that WMSDs are inevitable as part of the job, and did not consistently believe that changing the nature of the work could prevent that injury or pain. The interviewees reported limited availability and accessibility of tested and effective tools that both reduce physical demand and also get the job done efficiently and effectively. Yet for each major obstacle to implementation of ergonomics in the industry identified, the construction professionals we interviewed offered a variety of solutions. Contractors, unions, and workers need to work together to find actions that work within the parameters of the current economic environment.

A quarantine process for the resolution of duodenoscope-associated transmission of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli

Because of their complex design, duodenoscopes have been long recognized to be difficult to fully disinfect and may play a role in transmission of bacteria between patients. Recent reports of duodenoscope-associated carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae transmission have confirmed these suspicions. An outbreak of a multidrug resistant strain of Escherichia coli was recently reported at our institution. Herein we report the results of our investigation and the process improvements that we deployed in an effort to contain the outbreak. A full investigation into the environment, endoscopists, infection control practices, high-level disinfection process as well as endoscopes was undertaken in conjunction with the local county health authority and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Duodenoscopes were cultured and quarantined for 48 hours until negative cultures were obtained. Ergonomic changes were made to the endoscope reprocessing area, duodenoscopes were returned for routine maintenance, and surveillance cultures were obtained from all patients undergoing ERCP. Between November 2012 and August 2013, 32 patients were found to harbor 1 of 2 clonal strains of multidrug-resistant E coli, all of whom had undergone ERCP or duodenoscopy. A total of 1149 ERCPs were performed during this time period. Seven patients died within 31 days of the organism being identified in culture, 16 patients died overall by March 2015. The exact contribution of E coli to death is unclear because most patients had underlying late-stage malignancy or other severe medical comorbidities. No breach in high-level disinfection protocol or infection control practices was identified. The clonal strain of E coli was identified in culture on 4 of 8 duodenoscopes, 3 of which required critical repairs despite lack of obvious malfunction. The defect rate in high-level disinfection of duodenoscopes was 2% over a 1-year period. The implemented quality improvements, subsequent to which 1625 ERCPs have been performed, were successful in halting the outbreak. The existing manufacturer-recommended high-level disinfection protocols for duodenoscopes are inadequate. Although the ultimate solution may be a design change to the instrument, the timeline for such a change appears long and potentially difficult to exact. In the interim, a reliable method to ensure that bacterial pathogens are not present on the duodenoscope after high-level disinfection is needed.

I18. Patient Perspectives on Vocational Rehabilitation Provision

Work problems are common among patients with inflammatory forms of arthritis (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PA), undifferentiated inflammatory arthritis (IA)) with RA being the commonest long-term severe disabling condition in the United Kingdom (UK). Research suggests that work status, health, well-being and income are strongly related. RA related work instability can lead to work disability, and later to job loss. Loss of valued activities such as work could result in reduced self-esteem, life satisfaction, perceived health status and higher levels of depression and pain in people with RA. In the long term, these factors are associated with worse functional status, disease outcome and increased health service use. Vocational rehabilitation is a process to overcome the barriers individuals with work instability or disability counter when accessing, remaining or returning to work. In the context of health care provision, this could include practical advice and support to enable participants to disclose their condition to their employers, job modifications or accommodations such as ergonomic changes, psychosocial and informational strategies, and multidisciplinary team referral to manage the condition. It is recommended that early intervention either when the person is still working and experiencing difficulties, or in the first few weeks of sick leave, delivered in a format convenient to the patient is likely to result in better outcomes, such as reduced job loss. Thus, it is preferable to help people stay at work, as research suggests that once out of work people with IA are much less likely to go back to employment. In order to deliver vocational rehabilitation to employed patients in a format convenient to the patient requires individualised treatment. Thus it is important to understand the patient’s experience of undergoing vocational rehabilitation to help plan and deliver job retention interventions to patients with rheumatological conditions. This presentation will provide an overview of studies investigating people with inflammatory arthritis’ experience of undergoing vocational rehabilitation. It will focus on employed people with work problems, wanting to stay at work, with particular reference to the qualitative interviews conducted with participants in the Work Rehabilitation in Inflammatory Arthritis Study (WORK-IA). Factors such as access to vocational rehabilitation, and the barriers to and facilitators for staying at work will be discussed using participants’ narratives.

Implementation of Ergonomic Changes

The article presents elements of study done during the research project realization, the aim of which was to develop a new method to implement ergonomically changes of workplaces in organisations. The method is based on identification and use of the organisation subsystems dynamic properties, as well as the dynamic features of the change itself. The methodology is based on the identified relations that control most of the objects subjected to input. These relations describe the connections between the course of the value of input and output signals of the object. It assumes that particular parts of the organisation constitute systems. These systems, just like all others, are subject to certain regularities: they generate output signals, based on the level and dynamics of the input signals. However, the most crucial feature of the system is its static and dynamic characteristics. Under certain conditions, this feature of the system remains unchanged, while what changes is the level of the input signals of the system. Therefore, knowing the system characteristics and the input signal processing, one may try to assess the value of output signals. The knowledge of a given system characteristics may not only enable the successful prediction of its behavior, but also it may enable to establish a scheme of regularities, so that the output parameters would preserve certain predetermined properties, regardless of the status of the inputs. The research project within the study concerned the analysis of the dynamics of the processes of environmental changes implementation in organisations. On the basis of detailed studies in the organisations the most important relations describing the behavior of employees have been identified. Due to the knowledge of the dynamics of the given process as well as the interactions and connections that exist between different objects in the organisation, it will be easier to estimate the time of achieving the goals and determining the real value of purposes which the organisation subsystem achieves. The article below presents a part of the analysis concerning the way the employees approach a planned change.

An Overview of Multiple Sclerosis: Medical, Psychosocial, and Vocational Aspects of a Chronic and Unpredictable Neurological Disorder

This article presents an overview of multiple sclerosis (MS), one of the most common neurological disorders in the western hemisphere. Medical and psychosocial aspects of the disease such as causes and risk factors, diagnosis, incidence and prevalence, symptoms, courses, and treatment are described. Existing research regarding the employment outcomes and concerns of people with MS, especially the factors associated with labor force participation, is reviewed. Intervention strategies to enable individuals with MS to retain their employment are discussed such as early education on the nature of MS, advocacy-supported disclosure, and accommodation techniques for symptom management at the workplace. Important workplace accommodations include flexible work hours and work breaks, ergonomic changes in equipment to address upper and lower body limitations, and job simplification or other compensatory strategies to minimize the impact of cognitive problems on job performance.

Relationship between Postural Reeducation Technique During Sleep and Relaxation Technique in Sleep Quality

The common sense warn that the quality of our day depends on the quality of our previous night. Among the main factors contributing to a better sleep quality is the postural behavior during the sleep period. However, little or nothing is known about the actual influence of these behaviors on people sleep quality. This paper presents a study which aims to: i) Check if people can take on a new postural behavior during the sleep period after a training period aware of this behavior and; ii) Check if a postural recommendations can aims to induce positive changes in the perception on the indices of Sleep quality in young adults, according to ecological and environmental approach. A sample of 21560 observations, which corresponds to 595hours of sleep hours of 24 young adults, 12 male military and 12 female undergraduate, participated in this study. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to measure the perception of sleep quality before and after six consecutive months of appliance of the Postural Intervention program. Results shown that the Postural reeducation group improved self-perception of sleep quality (from bad to good) and a significant difference between the periods of the study (p = 0.008), according to the Student's T-Test and, ideal posture while sleeping using the ideal placement and amount of pillows (1.34% to 81.48%). Findings of this study allow us to suggest to health care professionals, in particular the rehabilitation professionals, new strategies and solutions for ergonomic change in posture in bed and improve the sleep quality indices.

Su1694 A Small Ergonomic Change Decreases Fluoroscopy Time During ERCP- a Multivariate Analysis

Su1694 A Small Ergonomic Change Decreases Fluoroscopy Time During ERCP- a Multivariate Analysis

A conceptual model of musculoskeletal disorders for occupational health practitioners

A conceptual model of musculoskeletal disorders for occupational health practitioners

The Reorganization by Processes and its Effect on the Organizational, Physical and Cognitive Ergonomics: A Case Study

This analysis deals with the reorganization by processes occurred in the area of research and development (R&D) in a company which is a world leader in its market, and the subsequent ergonomic changes needed. Aspects relative to organizational ergonomics are dealt with, applying to the new style of work, application of resources and the structure of task distribution. Aspects relating to cognitive and physical ergonomics are shown, focusing on environmental conditions and the interaction between the professionals of the group, and modifications made to the layout, work stations, operational procedures and training carried out. The analysis is based on a historical survey of problems encountered and their causes. Solutions adopted are based on compliance with the requirements of international rules and the needs raised by the members of the teams and professionals specialists in ergonomics. Evidences of improvement in productivity associated with the improvement of the ergonomics are presented.

Effect of Ergonomic Design Changes in Hand Tools on Physiological Cost and Subjective Ratings

Users of hand tools expect that tools after ergonomic changes in design will require less muscular activity and cause fewer musculoskeletal disorders than conventional tools. Reports on evaluation of ergonomic design changes in hand tools are controversial. In this study, we measured the effect of changes in tool design with physiological cost of performance and subjective ratings in a simulated setting. We determined physiological cost of performance by measuring muscle activity of the right and left forearm (flexor carpi ulnaris) with elec-tromyography. We collected a questionnaire with subjective ratings before and after each experimental task. Before the tests, ergonomically reconfigured hacksaws received better rating scores than original hacksaws. However, we found no differences in subjective ratings of the hacksaws after the tests. In addition, electromyo-graphic activity did not show any significant differences between the original and modified tools.

The businesscase for ergonomic changes in health care: calculating and predicting financial outcome for ergonomic changes and innovations in health care: interactive businesscase modelling

Research can point to new opportunities and assist in the development of valid business cases to help nurse managers plan change and allocate their budgets to the most promising interventions. These business cases and their results will, in turn, pave the way for more in depth and more fundamental research into implementation processes. It will add to the body of knowledge of intervention research and ultimately hopefully also add to our understanding of why ergonomic interventions in the workplace will or will not be effective and what the impact of financial constraints is. It is difficult to develop and design a valid businesscase. This poster will present one of the possible strategies to develop one.

Ergonomic study of an operator's work of a molybdenum plant

This study was part of an ergonomic program which is being carried out through an agreement between the University of Concepción and a Chilean private mining company. The purpose of this case study was to identify working conditions in which the physical and mental workload could be over the capabilities of the operator. He was responsible for loading trucks with sacks of molybdenum and for downloading reagents and handles them. The methods employed in this study included electronic records, interviews, surveys, review of the company standards, a time study and physical and mental workload analysis. Results showed that 84% of the time the operator was carrying out principal and secondary activities and no break periods were detected. It was found that the pace of work and the shift system generated unfavorable conditions by imbalance in the workload on the different days of the week. In the light of the results recommendations were made for a number of ergonomic changes. Most of them were accepted by the company. The most important achievement was a change in the shift system. The overload of the operator was due to the fact that he was in a shift working 5 days and resting on weekends. The imbalance was mainly because the work of the week end was accumulated for Monday. As a result of the study, the company contracted a second worker for this job and adopted a 7x7 shift system, meaning that they work seven days and rest seven days. An evaluation carried out two month after adopting the new shift revealed that changes were well accepted by the worker.