Productivity in older versus younger workers: A systematic literature review.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide ageing and thus, workforce ageing, is a concern for both developed and developing nations. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current research was to determine, through a systematic literature review, the effects of age in three dimensions that are often used to define or assess productivity at work. METHODS: PICO framework was used to generate search strategies, inclusion criteria and terms. Scopus and PubMed databases were used. Peer-reviewed journal papers written in English and published (or in press) between January 2014 and December 2018 were included. RESULTS: After filtering through inclusion criteria, 74 papers were included in the review. Considering productivity, 41%of the findings showed no differences between younger and older workers, 31%report better productivity of younger workers and 28%reported that older workers had better productivity than younger workers. Performance was better in older workers (58%), presenteeism generally showed no significant differences between age groups (61%). Absenteeism was the only outcome where younger workers outperformed older workers (43%). CONCLUSION: Overall, there was no difference in productivity between older and younger workers. Older workers performed better than younger workers, but had more absenteeism, while presenteeism showed no differences. As ageing has come to workplaces, holistic approaches addressing total health are suggested to overcome the worldwide workforce ageing phenomenon.

Secular changes in the anthropometrics of Chilean workers and its implication in design.

BACKGROUND: Anthropometrics is very important when ensuring a physical match between end users and product or workstations. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study are twofold, to provide anthropometric data for the design of products and to examine the secular changes in the adult Chilean workers in a period of more than 20 years. METHODS: Nineteen anthropometric measurements from two samples from 1995 and 2016 were compared using independent t-test (95% confidence interval), where additionally absolute and relative differences were calculated. RESULTS: The secular trend observed for Stature is characterized by an increase average of 20mm and 10.5mm per decade for females and males, respectively. There is a positive secular trend for both genders, which is observed for most of the selected body measurements. The most pronounced increases were onWeight, Shoulder breadth, Body mass index, Popliteal height; Buttock-popliteal length and Hip width. CONCLUSIONS: Segmental dimensions that experienced a positive secular trend, together with Weight and Stature, are highly correlated with seating design, addressing the need to review products targeting Chilean adult workers, such as public transport seats, office furniture or industrial workplaces.

Anthropometric characteristics of Chilean workers for ergonomic and design purposes.

Obtaining an appropriate match between a product and its end-users requires anthropometric data, which are typically outdated and show variations among different countries. Chile had its anthropometric data taken nearly 20 years ago, thus they are probably outdated. The purpose of this article is to describe some anthropometric characteristics of Chilean workers. An anthropometric survey involving 27 measures and five calculated body dimensions was conducted in 2016. The measurements were based on ISO 7250 and ISO 15535 to ensure the highest standards possible, and a total of 2946 workers, aged from 18 to 76 years old, participated in the survey. The results showed that Chilean workers have smaller dimensions than Dutch and US workers but have larger dimensions than South Koreans. The data presented in this article constitute the most up-to-date anthropometric dataset describing the dimensions of Chilean workers. Practitioner Summary: In Chile, women are smaller and weigh less than men, and both of these populations have high body mass index (BMIs). In addition, the Chilean population exhibits substantial differences compared with other international adult populations. The data presented in this article should be used as a reference when designing for Chilean workers.

A literature review of anthropometric studies of school students for ergonomics purposes: Are accuracy, precision and reliability being considered?

BACKGROUND: Despite offering many benefits, direct manual anthropometric measurement method can be problematic due to their vulnerability to measurement errors. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this literature review was to determine, whether or not the currently published anthropometric studies of school children, related to ergonomics, mentioned or evaluated the variables precision, reliability or accuracy in the direct manual measurement method. METHODS: Two bibliographic databases, and the bibliographic references of all the selected papers were used for finding relevant published papers in the fields considered in this study. RESULTS: Forty-six (46) studies met the criteria previously defined for this literature review. However, only ten (10) studies mentioned at least one of the analyzed variables, and none has evaluated all of them. Only reliability was assessed by three papers. Moreover, in what regards the factors that affect precision, reliability and accuracy, the reviewed papers presented large differences. This was particularly clear in the instruments used for the measurements, which were not consistent throughout the studies. Additionally, it was also clear that there was a lack of information regarding the evaluators' training and procedures for anthropometric data collection, which are assumed to be the most important issues that affect precision, reliability and accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the review of the literature, it was possible to conclude that the considered anthropometric studies had not focused their attention to the analysis of precision, reliability and accuracy of the manual measurement methods. Hence, and with the aim of avoiding measurement errors and misleading data, anthropometric studies should put more efforts and care on testing measurement error and defining the procedures used to collect anthropometric data.