Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomic risk factors in early intervention educators

Cheng, Hsin-Yi Kathy; Cheng, Chen-Yi; Ju, Yan-Ying

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2012.06.004

Cited by 45 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Compared with regular school teachers, this rate was higher. Special education school teachers and teacher’s aides, compared with regular school teachers, spend a substantial portion of their work-days in tasks involving movements and postures, which stress their bodies [ 2 ]. They face more challenges in tending to the students with special needs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students at such schools mostly do not have the ability to control themselves, hold coordination, or adapt themselves [ 1 ]; therefore, teachers in these schools are responsible for meeting the daily needs of such students. The physical demands include but are not limited to frequently lifting and carrying students, transferring students from one place to another, assisting in positioning, changing diaper, feeding, prolonged standing, and pushing and pulling [ 2 ]. Because these students have delayed development, more assistance is required in their daily routines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This group of disorders represents one of the most common occupational health problems in the working population. WMSDs can affect the quality of life, resulting in increased sick leaves or early retirement and can impose a major economic burden because of compensation costs and lost wages [ 2 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomic risk factors in special education teachers and teacher’s aides

Cheng

Wong

et al. 2016

BMC Public Health

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BackgroundWork-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) have become increasingly common among health-related professionals. Special education personnel who serve students with disabilities often experience physical strains; however, WMSDs have been overlooked in this population. The objectives of this study were to investigate the work-related ergonomics-associated factors in this population and to evaluate their correlation with the WMSDs prevalence.MethodsA questionnaire with three domains, namely demographics, prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and ergonomic factors, designed by our research team was delivered to educators who work in special education schools.ResultsApproximately 86 % of the 388 special education school teachers and teacher’s aides in this study experienced musculoskeletal disorders. The lower back, shoulder, and wrist were the three most affected regions. A logistic regression analysis revealed that the participants’ background factors, namely >5.5 years of experience (odds ratio [OR] = 4.090, 95 % CI: 1.350-12.390), students with multiple disorders (OR = 2.412, 95 % CI: 1.100-5.287), and other work-related ergonomic factors (assistance in diaper changing and others duties), were strongly associated with the prevalence of WMSD. Nap habit (OR = 0.442, 95 % CI: 0.230-0.851) and having teaching partners in the same class (OR = 0.486, 95 % CI: 0.250-0.945) resulted in low possibility of acquiring WMSDs. The use of supportive devices was associated with a low WMSD prevalence.ConclusionsThe present study revealed an association between WMSDs and specific job features among teachers and teacher’s aides in special education schools. Future efforts should emphasize examining safe student-handling ergonomics, formulating policies regarding student-teacher ratio, incorporating mandatory break times at the workplaces, and promoting personal health for preventing work-related injuries.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2777-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomic risk factors in special education teachers and teacher’s aides

Cheng

Wong

et al. 2016

BMC Public Health

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“…These included recommendations pertaining to intervention types and analysis methods. The recommendations pertaining to intervention types that were included consisted of the effect of environmental modification in the form of adult appropriate furniture (Cheng, Cheng, and Ju 2013;Grant, Habes, and Tepper 1995), and increasing preschool teacher's awareness of avoidable awkward postures (Grant, Habes, and Tepper 1995). The recommendations pertaining to analysis methods that were included consisted of capturing objective and observational data (Labaj et al 2016) and the use of motion analysis to assess posture alignment (Cheng, Cheng, and Ju 2013).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The comparative analysis of postural and biomechanical parameters of preschool teachers pre- and post-intervention within the ErgoKiTa study

et al. 2017

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The ErgoKiTa study aimed to determine the musculoskeletal strain of preschool teachers and to identify and evaluate suitable prevention measures to reduce this strain. A comprehensive work analysis using objective and subjective methods was performed to determine the present work situation in preschools in Germany, and the results were used to derive suitable intervention measures. The musculoskeletal strain was determined by means of a comprehensive analysis of postures, forces and movements using the CUELA system and calculated as cumulative shift workloads. The intervention measures were evaluated in a pre- and post-intervention assessment for 12 participants. Significant alterations in the duration of postures were determined, specifically for the daily duration of knee-straining postures as well as the degree of trunk flexion between 60° and 90°, which were reduced from 8.4 to 3.1% and from 3.7 to 2.4%, respectively, following the intervention. Practitioner Summary: Research has shown that preschool teachers are at risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. The effects of a situation-orientated and behaviour-orientated intervention approach were assessed with regard to awkward working postures. Significant alterations in the duration of postures following the intervention were found, specifically for knee-straining postures.

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“…In general, three different measurement techniques are used by the existent ergonomic assessment methods to identify risk factors in the workplace. The first is one by self-assessment [6,14], where commonly the worker is asked to fill out a questionnaire or form indicating their level of exposure to diverse risk factors. However, previous studies indicate that this technique is not always reliable and might be biased [2,22].…”

Section: Ergonomic Assessment Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing a web-based automatic ergonomic assessment using motion data

Padilla¹,

Glushkova²,

Menychtas³

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the 12th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments

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Manual laborers from the industry sector are often subject to critical physical strain that lead to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Lifting, poor posture and repetitive movements are among the causes of these disorders. In order to prevent them, several rules and methods have been established to identify ergonomic risks that the worker might be exposed during his/her activities. However, the ergonomic assessment though these methods is not a trivial task and a relevant degree of theoretical knowledge on the part of the analyst is necessary. Therefore in this paper, a web-based automatic ergonomic assessment module is proposed. The proposed module uses segment rotations acquired from inertial measurement units for the assessment and provides as feedback RULA scores, color visualisation and limb angles in a simple, intuitive and meaningful way. RULA is one of the most used observational methods for assessment of occupational risk factors for upper-extremity musculoskeletal disorders. By automatizing RULA an interesting perspective for extracting posture analytics for ergonomic assessment is opened, as well as the inclusion of new features that may complement it. For future work, the use of other features and sensors will be investigated for its implementation on the module.

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Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomic risk factors in early intervention educators

Cited by 45 publications

References 24 publications

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomic risk factors in special education teachers and teacher’s aides

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomic risk factors in special education teachers and teacher’s aides

The comparative analysis of postural and biomechanical parameters of preschool teachers pre- and post-intervention within the ErgoKiTa study

Designing a web-based automatic ergonomic assessment using motion data

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