Active epidemiological surveillance of musculoskeletal disorders in a shoe factory

Abstract

Aims: (1) To evaluate an active method of surveillance of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). (2) To compare different criteria for deciding whether or not a work situation could be considered at high risk of MSDs in a large, modern shoe factory. Methods: A total of 253 blue collar workers were interviewed and examined by the same physician in 1996; 191 of them were re-examined in 1997. Risk factors of MSDs were assessed for each worker by standardised job site work analysis. Prevalence and incidence rates of carpal tunnel syndrome, rotator cuff syndrome, and tension neck syndrome were calculated for each of the nine main types of work situation. Different criteria used to assess situations with high risk of MSDs were compared. Results: On the basis of prevalence data, three types of work situation were detected to be at high risk of MSDs: cutting, sewing, and assembly preparation. The three types of work situations identified on the basis of incidence data (sewing preparation, mechanised assembling, and finishing) were different from those identified by prevalence data. At least one recognised risk factor for MSDs was identified for all groups of work situations. The ergonomic risk could be considered as serious for the four types of work situation having the highest ergonomic scores (sewing, assembly preparation, pasting, and cutting). Conclusion:The results of the health surveillance method depend largely on the definition of the criteria used to define the risk of MSDs. The criteria based on incidence data are more valid than those based on prevalence data. Health and risk factor surveillance must be combined to predict the risk of MSDs in the company. However, exposure assessment plays a greater role in determining the priorities for ergonomic intervention. W ork related upper limb musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are a heterogeneous group of disorders which include peripheral nerve entrapments, muscle disorders, tendinitis and tenosynovitis, and vascular disorders. The work environment and performance of work contribute significantly to the development of such disorders.1 2 As in other industrial countries, workers' compensation (WC) claims for WMSDs in France are increasing in a wide range of occupational groups.3 As the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) is high in the shoe industry, a surveillance programme for MSDs was implemented to identify and reduce work related risk factors in a large shoe factory.Surveillance is defined as the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health and exposure data in the process of describing and monitoring a health event.2 The main objective of the surveillance of MSDs is to determine the need for action and to plan, implement and evaluate ergonomic intervention and programmes.2 4 Different systems are available for routine analysis of health and exposure to risk factors. Passive surveillance using WC and sickness data is easy to implement, even in small sized industries.2 4-6 Active surveillance involves a workplace specific system to ident...

Self-administered questionnaire and direct observation by checklist: Comparing two methods for physical exposure surveillance in a highly repetitive tasks plant

“…The UWMSD surveillance program implemented in the firm between 1996 and 2000 has been described in previous papers (Roquelaure et al 2001;Roquelaure et al 2002;Roquelaure et al 2004). Only data from 1996 and 1997 were used for the present study.…”

“…All the workers were interviewed during the annual compulsory medical visit and examined using the same procedure using a structured examination (Roquelaure et al 2001;Roquelaure et al 2002;Roquelaure et al 2004). In the present paper, the health outcome considered was having at least one of the nine UWMSD under review, i.e., tension neck syndrome, rotator cuff syndrome, lateral epicondylitis, medial epicondylitis, cubital tunnel syndrome, radial tunnel syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, Guyon's Tunnel syndrome and hand-wrist tendonitis.…”

“…There is strong evidence for an association between biomechanical exposures and these disorders (Hagberg et al 1995;Roquelaure et al 2002;Bernard BP 1997).…”

“…We used data from a French surveillance program for UWMSD implemented in a large shoe factory (Roquelaure et al 2002;Roquelaure et al 2001;Roquelaure et al 2004).…”

Relationship between psychosocial factors and musculoskeletal disorders in footwear industry workers

“…The footwear industry historically has negative numbers as regarding the occurrence of WRMDs in workers (Roquelaure et al, 2002). The literature contains several studies indicating that WRMDs affect almost every body part of workers in this industry, including the arm (Amano et al, 1988), the neck (Serratos-Perez & Mendiola-Anda, 1993), the shoulder (Descatha et al, 2004;Leclerc et al, 2004), the hand/finger (Gupta & Mahalanabis, 2006), the elbow (Descatha et al, 2007), the upper back (Aghili et al, 2012), the lower back (Warnakulasuriya et al, 2012), the knee (Dianat & Salimi, 2014), the hip/thigh and ankle/foot (Silva et al, 2016).…”