Assessing Floor Slipperiness in Fast-Food Restaurants in Taiwan Using Objective and Subjective Measures

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chang W-R ; Courtney TK ; Filiaggi A ; Huang Y-H ; Li KW
• Description:
  Slips and falls are major problems in occupational injuries in which floor slipperiness is a critical issue. Most of the studies on slipperiness assessments were conducted in laboratories. Field assessments are rarely reported in the literature. This study investigated floor slipperiness in seven kitchen areas of 10 western-style fast-food restaurants in Taiwan using both objective and subjective measurements which were conducted by friction measurements and by employees' ratings of floor slipperiness, respectively. The friction measurement results showed that the sink area had the lowest average friction in the kitchens. Employees, however, rated both the sink and back vat (chicken fry) areas as the most slippery areas. The Pearson's and Spearman's correlation coefficients between the averaged friction coefficients and subjective ratings for all 70 evaluated areas across all 10 restaurants were 0.49 and 0.45, respectively, with p < 0.0001 for both. The results indicate that average friction coefficient and perception are in fair agreement, suggesting that both might be reasonably good indicators of slipperiness. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Laboratories Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Slip And Fall Incidents Employees Falls Fast-food Restaurants Floors Friction Measurement Injuries Slips Slips, Trips, And Falls Statistical Analysis STF Subjective Rating Of Floor Slipperiness Work Environment Workers Worker Safety

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• ISSN:
  0003-6870
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  401-408
• Volume:
  35
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20054484
• Citation:
  Appl Ergon 2004 Jul; 35(4):401-408
• Contact Point Address:
  Wen-Ruey Chang, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA 01748
• Email:
  wen.chang@libertymutual.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard School of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20030701
• Source Full Name:
  Applied Ergonomics
• End Date:
  20050630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9d05095373ca4666b857257481355583a1806ec597d6bb58b18227cb83d0d612ee4a2bf77238836803a09955f34e141afe7a3f3502f81e743f5487752d8dbcac
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/217035/cdc_217035_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 284.15 KB ]