BACKGROUND The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in the shoulder, arm and hand is high among slaughterhouse workers, allegedly due to the highly repetitive and forceful exposure of these body regions during work. Work disability is a common consequence of these pains. Lowering the physical exposure through ergonomics intervention is the traditional strategy to reduce the workload. An alternati...

Background Desk-based workers engage in long periods of uninterrupted sitting time, which has been associated with morbidity and premature mortality. Previous workplace intervention trials have demonstrated the potential of providing sit-stand workstations, and of administering motivational behaviour change techniques, for reducing sitting time. Yet, few studies have combined these approaches o...

The 1960s represents a key decade in the expansion of ergonomics within the UK. This paper reviews trends and developments that emerged out of the 1960s and compares these with ergonomics research and practice today. The focus in particular is on the expansion of ergonomics as a discipline within industry, as well as more specific topics, such as the emergence of areas of interest, for example,...

This paper presents a reflection on the future of ergonomics and a clear position for the use of prospective in this discipline. We propose to structure ergonomic activities around corrective, preventive (design) and prospective ergonomics, where the latter looks forward in time to defining human needs and activities so as to create human-centered artifacts that are useful and provide a positiv...

We present an overview of the “Ergonomics in the life-cycle” curriculum that has been delivered over the past nine years to Physical Education students at the Kibbutzim Teachers College of Education in Israel. A large part of the course is aimed at training the students to incorporate ergonomic subjects into the physical education programs in the elementary and the high schools, as well as in t...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate interventions for the primary prevention of work-related carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). SELECTION CRITERIA Studies had to include an engineering, administrative, personal, or multiple component intervention applied to a working or working-age population. All study designs that included comparison data were considered. Outcome measures included the incidence, symptoms, or ...

Ergonomics literature has often identified concerns about the difficulty of gaining support for ergonomics interventions. There appears to be a shift from the view that ergonomics issues can be made to be simple, towards a wider appreciation of the complexity of ergonomics problems in the real world. A framework from knowledge management--the Cynefin Framework--is recommended as providing a way...

conclusions consistent reductions were observed for all wmsds disorders at the ninth month of the follow-up. it can be inferred that the use of practical and low-cost methods of engineering and administrative interventions together and monitoring the proper implementation of these interventions during a long time may achieve desired results in reducing musculoskeletal disorders in small scale a...