Development and Implementation of ‘Just Right’ Physical Behavior in Industrial Work Based on the Goldilocks Work Principle—A Feasibility Study

Lerche, Anders Fritz; Mathiassen, Svend Erik; Rasmussen, Charlotte Lund; Straker, Leon; Søgaard, Karen; Holtermann, Andreas

doi:10.3390/ijerph18094707

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Increasing variation in the physical demands could also be meaningful, and could include workers rotating between work tasks, job categories, or departments [ 14 , 18 , 20 ] with higher and lower physical demands and different exposure profiles, e.g., alternating heavy lifting, cashier work, and rest. Recently, a feasibility study has suggested that work can be re-organized and thereby reduce fatigue and pain while also increasing energy [ 59 ], and this could theoretically also work in supermarkets due to the high diversity in work tasks and hence variation in exposure profiles.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance of Lifting Height and Load Mass for Muscular Workload during Supermarket Stocking: Cross-Sectional Field Study

Skovlund

Bláfoss

Skals

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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High physical work demands increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders and sickness absence. Supermarket work involves a high amount of manual material handling. Identifying specific ergonomic risk factors is an important part of occupational health and safety efforts in the supermarket sector. In this cross-sectional field study among 64 supermarket workers, we used electromyography during the workday to determine the influence of lifting height and load mass on muscular workload of the low-back and neck/shoulder muscles during un-restricted manual material handling (grocery stocking). We found a significant effect of load mass, i.e., higher loads associated with higher muscular workload in the low-back and neck/shoulder muscles. We demonstrated a significant interaction between start and end position, i.e., lifts performed from ‘Low’ start positions to ‘High’ end positions demonstrated the highest low-back muscular workload, whereas ‘High’ positions were associated with increased neck/shoulder workload. In conclusion, lifting higher loads and lifting goods from low to high positions (low-back) and at high positions (neck/shoulder) are associated with higher muscular workload. These results can be used to guide highly warranted preventive initiatives to reduce the physical workload during supermarket work.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance of Lifting Height and Load Mass for Muscular Workload during Supermarket Stocking: Cross-Sectional Field Study

Skovlund

Bláfoss

Skals

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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“…As part of the intervention, each operations manager will be provided with a “GoldiCare tool” developed in Microsoft Excel to support a more even distribution of high ADL patients among home care workers. The GoldiCare tool was inspired by a similar Goldilocks Work intervention implemented in Denmark [ 17 ]. The GoldiCare tool was tested in a feasibility study (unpublished), and an adjusted version was adopted for the present intervention.…”

Section: Methods—participants Interventions and Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the vision of the Goldilocks Work Principle is that the just right distribution not only prevents poor health, but also promotes workers’ health and capacity. While the feasibility of Goldilocks interventions have been investigated in other sectors, such as child care [ 16 ] and manufacturing [ 17 ] no randomized controlled trial has been conducted in home care to date.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can home care work be organized to promote musculoskeletal health for workers? Study protocol for the Norwegian GoldiCare cluster randomized controlled trial

Lohne

Fimland

Holtermann

et al. 2022

BMC Health Serv Res

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Background Home care workers perform physically strenuous tasks, in particular when handling patients with high care demands. Thus, musculoskeletal pain and sick leave is greater in this group than in the general population. To ease these issues, we will implement a Goldilocks Work intervention (GoldiCare), redistributing schedules between workers to achieve a “just right” weekly structure of physical work that can promote health. This protocol paper describes the content, design, implementation and evaluation of the cluster randomized controlled trial of the GoldiCare intervention in home care. Methods The cluster randomized controlled trial is a 16-week workplace organizational intervention implemented through operations managers at the home care units. The operations managers will be introduced to the Goldilocks Work Principle and a GoldiCare tool, to assist the operations managers when composing a “just right” distribution of work schedules throughout the week. The GoldiCare tool provides an overview of the physical strain for each shift, based on the number of patients and their need for care. We expect to include 11 units, which will be randomized to either intervention or control at a 1:1 ratio. Home care workers assigned to the control group will continue to work as normal during the intervention period. Musculoskeletal pain in neck/shoulder and lower back will be the primary outcomes and we will also evaluate the composition of physical behaviors as well as fatigue after work as secondary outcomes. We will collect data using (1) daily questions regarding musculoskeletal pain and fatigue after work, (2) 7 days of objective measurements of physical behavior, (3) questionnaires about the participant’s characteristics, health, and workplace psychosocial stressors and (4) information on the implementation of the GoldiCare tool. In addition, a process evaluation will be conducted using focus group discussions and individual interviews. Discussion Due to the increasing aging population in need of care, measures that can improve the health of home care workers are paramount for the sustainability of this sector. This organizational intervention is based on information available nation-wide, and therefore has the potential to be scaled to all municipalities in Norway if proven effective. Trial registration This clinical trial was registered on 08/05/2022 under NCT05487027.

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“…The Goldilocks Work Principle proposes that occupational physical activity can be designed to comprise a 'just-right' balance of physical behaviors, including intense periods, alternating with recovery, that can promote workers' health and fitness [15]. In prior research we found that industrial workers stand for a large portion of the workday, have little variation in their physical behaviors, limited time for recovery, and limited time at an intensity which would promote cardiovascular fitness [16]. Accordingly, increasing their time spent sitting (to support recovery), their time being active, and their frequency of alternations between these behaviors could promote their musculoskeletal health [7,15,17].…”

Section: Background and Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

Designing industrial work to be ‘just right’ to promote health - a study protocol for a goldilocks work intervention

et al. 2022

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Background The Goldilocks Work Principle expresses that productive work should be designed to promote workers’ health. We recently showed that it is feasible to develop and implement modifications to productive work that change physical behaviors (i.e. sitting, standing and being active) in a direction that may promote health among industrial workers. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to conduct a cluster randomised controlled trial investigating health effects of implementing the Goldilocks Work intervention among industrial workers. Methods Our implementation plan consists of educating work teams, organizing implementation meetings, and providing feedback to workers. Three meetings with a preselected local workplace group will be scheduled. The first meeting educates the group to use a planning tool by which work can be planned to have ‘just right’ physical behaviors. The second and third meetings will focus on supporting implementation of the tool in daily work. An expected 28 clusters of work teams across two participating production sites will be randomized to either intervention or control group. Data collection will consist of 1) questionnaires regarding work and musculoskeletal health, 2) wearable sensor measurements of the physical behavior, and 3) assessment of general health indicators, including BMI, blood pressure, and fat percentage. The primary outcome is musculoskeletal health, measured by low back pain intensity, and secondary outcomes are 1) physical behaviors at work, 2) accumulated time in long bouts of sitting, standing, and being active and 3) perceived fatigue and energy during work. Furthermore, implementation and cost of the intervention will be evaluated based on questionnaires and data from the planning tool completed by the workers. Discussion This study will evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of a 12 - weeks Goldilocks Work intervention with the aim of improving musculoskeletal health among industrial workers. The cluster randomized controlled study design and the evaluation of the implementation, results and costs of the intervention will make it capable of contributing with valuable evidence of how productive work may be designed to promote industrial workers’ health. Trial registration Clinical trial registration was assigned 10–09-2021 (ISRCTN80969503). https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN80969503

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Development and Implementation of ‘Just Right’ Physical Behavior in Industrial Work Based on the Goldilocks Work Principle—A Feasibility Study

Cited by 20 publications

References 48 publications

The Importance of Lifting Height and Load Mass for Muscular Workload during Supermarket Stocking: Cross-Sectional Field Study

The Importance of Lifting Height and Load Mass for Muscular Workload during Supermarket Stocking: Cross-Sectional Field Study

Can home care work be organized to promote musculoskeletal health for workers? Study protocol for the Norwegian GoldiCare cluster randomized controlled trial

Designing industrial work to be ‘just right’ to promote health - a study protocol for a goldilocks work intervention

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