The effectiveness of ergonomic interventions in material handling operations

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Appl Ergon
• Personal Author:
  Wurzelbacher, Steven J. ; Lampl, Michael P. ; Bertke, Stephen J. ; Tseng, Chih-Yu
• Description:
  This study evaluated the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions in material handling operations involving 33 employers and 535 employees from 2012 to 2017. Outcomes included employee-reported low back/upper extremity pain and safety incidents at baseline, every three months, and annually for up to two years. A total of 32.5% of employees completed at least one survey, while 13.6% completed all nine surveys over two years. Among highly exposed employees (who reported handling >= 50 lbs. > 33% of the time), upper extremity pain frequency and severity were lower among those who reported using the intervention routinely versus those that reported using their body strength alone to handle objects >= 50 lbs. After excluding from analyses one employer that used anti-fatigue mats, low back pain frequency was also significantly lower among highly exposed intervention users. In conclusion, there was some evidence that the interventions were effective in reducing employee-reported pain for highly exposed employees.
• Subjects:
  Adult Article Ergonomics Female Humans Lifting Low Back Pain Male Manufactured Materials Manufacturing Industry Middle Aged Musculoskeletal Pain Occupational Diseases Outcome Assessment, Health Care Upper Extremity Weight-Bearing Work

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• Source:
  Appl Ergon. 87:103139
• Pubmed ID:
  32501244
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC8669597
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  87
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:b3da84192dbb5e9580b2482b7afc87783e5663e26daba24b6629063c295a410c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/112560/cdc_112560_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 256.67 KB ]