Retrospective Self Assessment of Ergonomic Exposure

Development of simple-to-use, cost-effective risk assessments is a current research necessity in Ergonomics. Direct measurements and observational methods are usually considered more reliable and objective than retrospective self-assessment but the more subjective methods are often the only feasible way to evaluate exposure to health risks – particularly in large field studies. This paper discusses retrospective self-assessment as a potentially valid, reliable exposure assessment methodology, suggests some ways that subjective exposure assessments might be improved, and demonstrates one possible approach to generating a valid retrospective self-assessment instrument for collecting exposure data on ergonomic risk factors.