Ergonomic Intervention for Musculoskeletal Disorders in Construction Workers

No abstract available.

Effects of document holder on postural neck muscles activity among computer users: a preliminary study

Background: Computer users are exposed to work related neck disorders due to repetitive movement and static posture for prolonged period. Viewing document and typing simultaneously are one of the contributing factors for neck disorders

Methods: This preliminary study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the document holder on the postural neck muscles activity among computer users. Nine healthy participants with pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited for the study. Neck muscles activity were analyzed using the surface electromyography [EMG] in five different document location such as flat right, flat left, flat center, stand right and stand left during a 5 min typing task

Results: The mean and standard deviation results showed a least amount of muscles activity using a document holder compared to without document holder. Nevertheless, the statistical analysis showed no significant differences between the using of a document holder

Conclusions: The effects of document holder on head excursion and neck muscle activity is recommended in clinical neck pain population

Learning pathways during clinical placement of physiotherapy students: a Malaysian experience of using learning contracts and reflective diaries / 보건의료교육평가

PURPOSE: Learning contracts and reflective diaries are educational tools that have been recently introduced to physiotherapy students from Malaysia during clinical education. It is unclear how students perceive the experience of using a learning contract and reflective diary. This study explores the learning pathways of the students after using a learning contract and a reflective diary for the first time in their clinical placement. METHODS: A total of 26 final-year physiotherapy students completed a learning contract and a reflective diary during clinical placements. Two researchers explored the data qualitatively by the thematic content analysis method using NVivo. RESULTS: A total of four and six main learning themes were identified from the data of the students through a learning contract and reflective diary. CONCLUSION: These learning themes reflected the views of the students about what they have considered to be important learning pathways during their clinical placements. They give valuable insights into the experiences and opinions of students during their clinical education process, which should be useful for enhancing teaching and learning methods in physiotherapy education.

The Effects of Hospital Based Respiratory Physiotherapy an Intervention Study among COPD Patient in Al-Zawia City, Libya

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a one of the major cause of death and disability worldwide. This study aimed to compare the quality of life (QOL), Activity of Daily Living (ADL), Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) and general health symptoms pre and after hospital-based respiratory physiotherapy program among COPD patients. Pre and post intervention study was conducted between January and July 2010. A total of 54 subjects aged between 30 to 40 years old were recruited for this study using universal sampling method from Alzawia Teaching Hospital, Libya. Data collected were socio-demographic data, QOL (before and after the intervention) using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire, ADL using the Barthel Index and the General Health Symptoms. The mean SF-36 score for QOL is 30.13 (SD = 8.06) and 63.46 (SD = 13.53) before and after the physiotherapy respectively (with the p <0.0001). Patients’ Activity of Daily Living mean scores are 70.18, (SD = 16.50) and mean = 88.89 (SD = 13.28) before and after program (p< 0.0001). The general medical condition mean score after respiratory physiotherapy is 3.72 as compared to 4.96 before the respiratory physiotherapy (p< 0.0001). Pulmonary Function Test shows improvement in actual/predicted FEV1 ratio in all 54 cases with mean improvement from 55.85 before to 81.67 after the pulmonary physiotherapy (with the p <0.0001). Hospital based respiratory physiotherapy program had significantly improved QOL, pulmonary function and activities of daily living among the subjects.

Work-related injuries among physiotherapists in public hospitals: a Southeast Asian picture

OBJECTIVES: A cross-sectional study was conducted to measure the prevalence of work-related injuries among physiotherapists in Malaysia and to explore the influence of factors such as gender, body mass index, years of work experience and clinical placement areas on the occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires adapted from the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire were sent to 105 physiotherapists at three main public hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The questionnaire had 12 items that covered demographic information, areas of musculoskeletal problems and physiotherapy techniques that could contribute to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The data obtained were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science version 14 software. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of work-related injuries during the past 12 months was 71.6 percent. Female therapists reported a significantly higher prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders than the male therapists (73.0 percent, p,0.001). Significant differences were observed between the proportion of therapists who had work-related musculoskeletal disorders and those who did not for the group with a body mass index (BMI) .25 (x ² = 9.0, p = 0.003) and the group with a BMI of 18-25 (x ² = 7.8, p = 0.006). Manual therapy (58.6 percent) and lifting/transfer tasks (41.3 percent) were the two physiotherapy techniques that most often contributed to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. CONCLUSION: Work-related injuries are significantly higher among the physiotherapists in Malaysia compared with many other countries. Female therapists reported a higher incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in this study, and work-related musculoskeletal disorders were more common among therapists working in the pediatric specialty. This study contributes to the understanding of work-related disorders among physiotherapists from a southeast Asian perspective where the profession is in its development stage.

Development and evaluation of 'neck pain and functional limitation scale': A validation study in the Asian context.

Background :There is a paucity of literature on validated outcome measurement tools for evaluation of neck pain and related disability in the Asian context. Aim :The main aim of the present study was to design a new tool called neck pain functional limitation scale (NPFLS) for measuring disability related to neck pain and observe its reliability, concurrent validity and criterion validity. Setting and design :This study was performed at the institutional hospital. Materials and methods :A total of 157 subjects (neck pain group) and 25 control subjects (control group) without neck pain were recruited for this study. NPFLS was framed as a new tool for this study, which consisted of 5 domains - pain intensity, activities of daily living, social activities, functional activities and psychological factors. Neck Bournemouth questionnaire (NBQ) was used as a gold standard to measure the concurrent validity and criterion validity of the NPFLS. Statistical analysis :Criterion validity and concurrent validity between the neck Bournemouth questionnaire (NBQ) and NPFLS scores were tested statistically using Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation test. The reliability was tested by examining the internal consistency to calculate the Cronbach's alpha value for each item in NPFLS. Results : No significant difference between NPFLS and NBQ was observed using Mann-Whitney U Test, with P value greater than 0.05 (P= 0.557). Besides that, NPFLS had a high concurrent validity (r= 0.916) and good internal consistency with high Cronbach's alpha value of (r= 0.948), which demonstrated strong correlation between the items of NPFLS and NBQ. Conclusion : NPFLS demonstrated good reliability, high concurrent validity and criterion validity in this study. NPFLS can be used to assess neck pain and disability among patients with neck pain.

A Comparison between Home Based and Hospital-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programmes Among COPD Patients in Improving Lung Functional Status / Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia

This study was aimed at identifying the effectiveness of hospital-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme as compared to home-based pulmonary programme in improving the condition of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital. A total of 35 patients aging between 17 to 78 years old were randomised either to hospital (48.6%, n = 20) or home (43%, n = 15) -based pulmonary rehabilitation by the Physiotherapists. For the hospital-based rehabilitation programme, the patients were scheduled to come to the hospital twice a week for eight weeks. For home-based rehabilitation programme, subjects were scheduled to come to the Physiotherapy Department twice to learn on the exercises that need to be carried out before they are allowed to do on their own at home. Each subject was given a diary to record the exercises that have been done. A telephone call is made once a week for monitoring purpose. Assessment of lung function, six-minute-walk test and Borg score were carried out before and after the eight-week rehabilitation is conducted. The Results showed that there was no significant change in lung function for both groups before and after rehabilitation. There is a significant different (p 0.05) for home-base pulmonary rehabilitation patients. The results also show that there exist no significant correlation between lung function and 6MWT even though there is an increase in walking distance at baseline or the eighth week. In conclusion, hospitalbased pulmonary rehabilitation is more effective than the home-based pulmonary rehabilitation in improving the exercise endurance which would helps in reduce dyspnoea among COPD patients.