Advancing Workplace Safety Surveillance with Ambulatory Inertial Sensors

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chen P ; Davis G ; Gallagher S ; McGwin G ; Schall MC Jr. ; Seals C ; Sesek R
• Description:
  Introduction. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are prevalent and disabling health conditions that result in substantial health care costs and lost productivity. Manufacturing workers report a high prevalence of MSDs resulting from repeated exposure to physical risk factors in their work environment. One contributing factor for the repeated adverse exposure is insufficient control of these risk factors due to the routine use of imprecise and potentially biased self-report and/or observation-based exposure assessment tools. Direct measurement technologies such as ambulatory inertial sensors (AISs) provide more precise and unbiased information for estimating occupational exposure to physical risk factors compared to self-report or observation-based exposure assessment methods. Methods. This study was executed in three phases. Each phase addressed barriers preventing the adoption of AISs in manufacturing environments. In the first phase, wearable AISs were deployed among a stratified sample of manufacturing workers performing cyclic and noncyclic work tasks over 15 complete working days for each participant to gather information regarding kinematic exposure variability. The information was used to evaluate the precision of exposure measurements from AISs and estimate the number of workdays that must be sampled depending on worker group categorization (i.e., cyclic vs. non-cyclic). In the second phase, a workplace occupational health and safety "dashboard" was developed, evaluated, and implemented that summarized direct measurements obtained from the wearable sensors to inform operational decision-making. The third phase evaluated the AIS-driven dashboard's effects on exposure to physical risk factors and safety behaviors, considering stakeholder perceptions of organizational and group-level safety climate. Results. Statistically significantly higher upper arm and trunk movement speeds among manufacturing workers performing predominantly cyclic tasks were measured compared to those performing non-cyclic tasks despite similar postures. Greater exposure variability was measured both between and within workers in the non-cyclic group. Bootstrap analyses of the kinematic exposure metrics indicated that nine days of data collection would be sufficient to obtain stable estimates of the kinematic metrics associated with work-related MSDs in previous epidemiological investigations. The AISs were identified as being comfortable to wear, not distracting, and not burdensome for the participating manufacturing workers to use. The occupational health and safety dashboard developed in this study received a "marginal" rating from evaluators. Mixed results were measured when evaluating the effects of using the AIS-driven dashboard on exposure to physical risk factors and safety behaviors. Both work groups spent approximately six to eight percent more time in neutral postures compared to the pre-intervention phase. The trunk flexion/extension movement speeds among the cyclic participants improved post-intervention, whereas the movement speeds among the non-cyclic participants generally worsened. Conclusion. The results of this study suggest that AISs can be successfully used to quantify and compare occupational exposures to kinematic risk factors (e.g., non-neutral postures and high movement speeds) among manufacturing workers over extended durations without substantial discomfort, distraction, or burden. Additional studies exploring the use of AISs and software systems that leverage summaries of key performance indicators for guiding the prioritization of work design improvements are warranted. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Engineering Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Biomechanical Engineering Biomechanics Ergonomics Exposure Assessment Manufacturing MSD Musculoskeletal Disorders Posture Sensors Surveillance Wearable Technologies

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• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Alabama ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-71
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066997
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, K01-OH-011183, 2022 Aug; :1-71
• Contact Point Address:
  Mark C. Schall, Jr., Ph.D., Auburn University, College of Engineering, Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, 3323E Shelby Center, 345 W Magnolia Ave, Auburn, AL 36849
• Email:
  mark-schall@auburn.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing
• Performing Organization:
  Auburn University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20180901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20210831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:67e324220030ce934e361208c2f8613536e27b91ca38cd2165dcd6d9446379ec7ab482681512ba9659ab02570754412866013437ca0940a4c5a98e2ff3279a7f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219180/cdc_219180_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.72 MB ]