Study and Evaluation of Work related Musculoskeletal Disorder risk in Leather Garments Manufacturing Industry

The aim of this study is to find the level of work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) risk at work and its impact, using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) in Leather Garments Manufacturing Industry. Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) is a common health problem throughout the world and it is a major cause of disability. The economic loss due to such disorders affects not only the individual, but also the organization and society as a whole. The level of Work related Musculoskeletal Disorder (WMSD) risk in a posture and its impact on the workers while maintaining that posture during their work needs to be addressed to find the importance of Ergonomics in the Industries and to create more awareness on WMSD. It is a cross sectional study involving 112 workers from stitching, pasting, cutting and fusing departments of various leather garments manufacturing industries between the age group of 25 to 60 years. Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to analyze the relationship between Left and Right side in workers using RULA and REBA. This test showed that there was a significant difference between the Left and Right side in both RULA and REBA for Stitchers and Pasters (‘p’ value was set at 0.05 as level of significance). Scores obtained from the RULA and REBA clearly indicated that, workers are at a high risk of work related musculoskeletal disorders. Index Terms – Ergonomics, Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD), Posture, Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA).