The Prevalence and Ergonomic Analysis of Cumulative Trauma Disorders in the Paper Reviewing Workers

OBJECTIVE: To survey the prevalence of cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) and to analyze the ergonomic factors in the paper reviewing workers. METHOD: Five hundreds and twenty subjects of paper reviewers were collected from 'National Medical Insurance Association' who had been exposed to risky working environment regarding CTDs. The subjects were first screened by occupational medicine specialists and confirmed by physiatrist. The subjects were also examined by serologic test, radiologic imaging, and electro diagnostic study. Ergonomists analyzed the job element to identify the risk factors by baseline checklist of CTDs. RESULTS: Among the workers, 51 (9.8%) of 520 were confirmed to CTDs, the prevalance of myofascial pain syndrome was 22 (43.1%), that of medial epicondylitis was 13 (25.5)%, lateral epicondylitis 8 (15.7%) and others. Pain scale of National Industrial Occupational Safety Health Institute symtoms criteria was highest in the shoulder girdle and the next was in the neck, in the wirst and fingers. The ergonomic risk score was highest 2.56 in the 'verifying' job, and the next 2.20 in 'the 2nd examination' job and 'the 1st examination' job, 1.72 in 'correcting' job. CONCLUSION: The result would be helpful for the prevention and management of CTDs in the paper reviewing workers.

A Relationship between Cumulative Trauma Disorder and the Type of Workstations and Chairs in Workers with Repetitive Motion Tasks / 대한산업의학회지

OBJECTIVES: The main purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between cumulative trauma disorders(CTDs) and the types of workstation and chair in workers with repetitive motion tasks. METHODS: The study subjects were 77 repetitive motion tasks workers at small manufacturing industries in Seoul and Gyung-gi district area. A questionnaire was used to obtain about health practice for prevention and prevalence of CTDs by worker. The type of Workstations and chairs in workers were measured and analyzed with prevalence of CTDs by logistic regression. RESULTS: Eighty-six percent of workers recognized that work posture was related to workstation and chair. Most employers and employees didn't follow the work practice guidelines for workers with repetitive motion tasks. The prevalence of CTDs was 64% by questionnaire. The prevalence of pain in shoulder, neck, back, and arm were 38%, 15%, 6%, and 5%, respectively, and the pain started after working an average duration of 16.5 months. The CTDs symptoms were significantly related to thickness of workstation, height of workstation, length of knee depth under workstation, height of back rest, height of seat pan, depth of sitting surface, width of sitting surface, and length from workstation surface edge to shoulder. By multiple regression analysis of each risk factor, prevalence of CTDs was highly correlated with height of back rest, height of seat pan, and depth of sitting surface. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that workstations should be made adjustable for height and chairs should be equipped with seat pan height control, enough sitting surface for depth and width, back rest height and angle control. The workers should use the right working postures, exercise for health, occupational health education, and rest breaks and the manager of company should be educated for the preventing of CTDs.

Development of a Baseline Checklist for CTD Risk Assessment / 대한산업의학회지

Today, CTDs (Cumulative Trauma Disorders) are one of major hazards in the US and European Industries disrupting work schedules, productivity and increasing workers compensation costs. The increase in injuries and their associated costs has led companies to form committees and implement programs to address this problem. Therefore, it is important that quantitative analysis tools help identify and assess industrial tasks that pose risk to workers. However, the process of quantifying risk in upper limb tasks is still in its infancy stage and calls for better measurement techniques are not going unheard. As the first work of quantification, baseline CTD checklist for risk assessment was developed in this study. It was mainly based on previous literature regarding CTDs. The checklist was unique in that its expected user was industrial hygienist who did not have much ergonomic background and in that it was targeted to Korean workers in various types of industries. As the first application of the checklist, some jobs in two industries (VDT, heavy Industry) were evaluated, and compared with the medical data. Eighteen out of thirty items in the checklist was univariately significant (p<0.05) on the results of medical examinations. The correlation between medical data and total risk score from the checklist was 0.62. The feasibility of its use by an industrial hygienist was also checked by comparing with the results by an ergonomist. Their correlation (on the basis of Kendall's tau-b) in terms of total risk score was 0.74. The checklist in this study shows reasonably good performance for the first trial. Further research will have to include continuous refinement and validation for many more industries and many more jobs.

Cumulative Trauma Disorders Among Shipyard Workers and Application of Baseline Checklist for Risk Assessment / 대한산업의학회지

Cumulative trauma disorders were surveyed in a cross-sectional study of 100 male ship yard workers and 43 male office workers. And baseline checklist for risk assessment of cumulative trauma disorders was applicated in a ship making process. Cases of cumulative trauma disorders were defined using physical examinations and electronic diagnostic methods. Data on demographics, individual factors (medical condition), work organization and psychosocial aspects of work were obtained by questionnaire. Association between the above factors and cumulative trauma disorders were assessed by multiple logistic regression models. 29(29 %) participants of male shipyard workers and 4(9.2 %) study subjects of male office workers met our case definitions for cumulative trauma disorders. The myofascial pain syndrome of neck muscles(12 % of participants) and carpal tunnel syndrome(5 % of participants) were the major two medical conditions in shipyard workers. The odds of male shipyard workers for cumulative trauma disorders to male office workers was 3.15 after adjustment of age(95 % C.I. :2.25-5.44). And the variables such as duration of present job, HIVD condition, and surges in workload were associated at least one of the cumulative trauma disorders in the final models (p<0.05) . This study indicates that work related upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders are relatively common among shipyard workers, and shows that the psychosocial factors is not likely to be related to the occur rences of these disorders in heavy workers. Also we developed baseline checklist for risk assessment of cumulative trauma disorders. The checklist was unique in that its expected users were industrial hygienists and occupational healthing nurses who did not have much ergonomic background and in that it was targeted to Korean workers in various types. As the first application of the checklist, shipyard workers were evaluated.

Cumulative Trauma Disorders Among Shipyard Workers and Application of Baseline Checklist for Risk Assessment / 대한산업의학회지

Cumulative trauma disorders were surveyed in a cross-sectional study of 100 male ship yard workers and 43 male office workers. And baseline checklist for risk assessment of cumulative trauma disorders was applicated in a ship making process. Cases of cumulative trauma disorders were defined using physical examinations and electronic diagnostic methods. Data on demographics, individual factors (medical condition), work organization and psychosocial aspects of work were obtained by questionnaire. Association between the above factors and cumulative trauma disorders were assessed by multiple logistic regression models. 29(29 %) participants of male shipyard workers and 4(9.2 %) study subjects of male office workers met our case definitions for cumulative trauma disorders. The myofascial pain syndrome of neck muscles(12 % of participants) and carpal tunnel syndrome(5 % of participants) were the major two medical conditions in shipyard workers. The odds of male shipyard workers for cumulative trauma disorders to male office workers was 3.15 after adjustment of age(95 % C.I. :2.25-5.44). And the variables such as duration of present job, HIVD condition, and surges in workload were associated at least one of the cumulative trauma disorders in the final models (p<0.05) . This study indicates that work related upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders are relatively common among shipyard workers, and shows that the psychosocial factors is not likely to be related to the occur rences of these disorders in heavy workers. Also we developed baseline checklist for risk assessment of cumulative trauma disorders. The checklist was unique in that its expected users were industrial hygienists and occupational healthing nurses who did not have much ergonomic background and in that it was targeted to Korean workers in various types. As the first application of the checklist, shipyard workers were evaluated.