Carpenters' perceived exertion and body discomfort symptoms associated with their tasks - an on-site evaluation

Details

• Personal Author:
  Applegate H ; Bhattacharya, Amit ; Dimov M ; Lemasters, Grace ; Li Y ; Stinson R
• Description:
  The purpose of this study was to determine how carpenters subjectively perceived the exertion level and body discomfort associated with their daily tasks. Two psychophysical instruments were utilized in this study. The Borg's whole body physical exertion instrument, a measure of overall physical demand, and the body segment (modified Bishop-Corlett Scale) instrument, a measure of rating pictorial body segmental discomfort, were given to 65 carpenters at the work site after the end of their shift. Carpentry specialties evaluated on-site were ceiling, drywall, concrete form work, finish work, piledriving, fixtures, welding, and scaffolding. The mean Borg's score for the subjects combining all specialties was 14.4 (2.4 SO), a score between "somewhat hard" and "hard," for perceived overall physical effort demanded by the task. Results indicate that the perception of whole body physical exertion was a direct indication of the specific task-associated exertion and was not influenced by age nor the number of years as a carpenter. The findings from the body segment discomfort scale of the total group, indicates that the top three discomfort frequency by body segments were mid- to lower back (54.6%). knees (41.7%), and the neck (35.3%). Significant differences by body segment discomfort in a multivariate comparison among specialties appeared for two specialties: drywall, with back (63.3%) and knee (54.5%) discomfort were higher than other body segments (p=0.03); and finishing, with hand/wrist (80.0%) higher than all other body segments (p=0.03). Project funded by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and work performed at the Greater Cincinnati Occupational Health Center. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Mental Health Occupational Health Safety Welding
• Keywords:
  Construction-workers Physical-capacity Physical-exercise Physical-fitness Physical-reactions Physiological-effects Physiological-factors Physiological-function Psychological-effects Psychological-factors Psychological-reactions Psychological-responses Scaffolds Statistical-analysis

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• Publisher:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  16-17
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041266
• Citation:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, May 19-23, 1997, Dallas, Texas. Fairfax, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association, 1997 May; :16-17
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1997
• Performing Organization:
  University of Cincinnati
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, May 19-23, 1997, Dallas, Texas
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:542855d01093c074174bafe3b6e2cff2b3bf11d28c02e1622e3819d9172d7bf57cc2e5e3cd9bdf54fff4c3fb88fb5217c9e4515c1bcd24fdaa86d1e6605924b7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193871/cdc_193871_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 741.11 KB ]