The effect of postures on musculoskeletal disorders in work places

authors:

avatar Zohre rowshani 1 , avatar Seyed Bagher Mortazavi 2 , * , avatar Ali Khavanin 2 , avatar Majid Motamedzade 3 , avatar Ebrahim Hajizade 4 , avatar Mahnaz Mohseni 5

Occupational Environment Health Center, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran
Dept. of Occupational & Environmental Health, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University. Tehran, Iran
Dept. of Agronomy, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
Dept. of Biostatistics, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Senior Safety Expert of NIORDC, HSE Management Department, Tehran, Iran
Journal of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences: Vol.16, issue 5; e77351
published online: December 29, 2012
article type: Research Article
received: October 30, 2011
accepted: April 10, 2012

how to cite: rowshani Z , Mortazavi S B, Khavanin A, Motamedzade M, Hajizade E, et al. The effect of postures on musculoskeletal disorders in work places. J Kermanshah Univ Med Sci. 2012;16(5):e77351. 

Abstract

Background:  Nowadays, Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are the most common problems in the workplaces. Non-ergonomic workstation and job design lead the workers to expose to various kinds of risk factors that cause MSDs. In this study, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire (NMQ) were used for assessing the risk of cause musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) at a TV manufacturing company.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 50 workers were selected randomly from assembly lines workers. Then RULA method was performed and NMQ was completed for workers too. Jobs were categorized into two parts of safe and unsafe jobs and musculoskeletal disorders risk factors were assessed.
Results: According to RULA scoring method, for right hand, 46% of cases were at  grade 2, 52% of cases were at grade 3 and only 2% of cases were at grade 4.
Regarding left hand 44% of cases were at  grade 2, 54% of cases were at grade 3 and 2% of cases were at grade 2. Also, no job was at grade 1and only in APT 25% of cases were in grade 4 for both hands. Results from NMQ have also showed that most prevalent disorders were among waist & shoulder (48%), neck (28%) and back (24%) respectively.
Conclusion: This study showed that the mentioned variables had no relation with musculoskeletal disorders. This, perhaps, is the result of lower age and their low experience of the workers as well as the interference of some extraneous variables.

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