Assessment of physical demands and comparison of multiple exposure definitions in a repetitive sawmill job: board edger operator

Using observation and self-report to predict mean, 90th percentile, and cumulative low back muscle activity in heavy industry workers

Occupational injury research depends on the ability to accurately assess workplace exposures for large numbers of workers. This study used mixed modeling to identify observed and self-reported predictors of mean, 90th percentile, and cumulative low back muscle activity to help researchers efficiently assess physical exposures in epidemiological studies. Full-shift low back electromyography (EMG) was measured for 133 worker-days in heavy industry. Additionally, full-shift, 1-min interval work-sampling observations and post-shift interviews assessed exposure to work tasks, trunk postures, and manual materials handling. Data were also collected on demographic and job variables. Regression models using observed variables predicted 31-47% of the variability in the EMG activity measures, while self-reported variables predicted 21-36%. Observation-based models performed better than self-report-based models and may provide an alternative to direct measurement of back injury risk factors.

Footbed shapes for enhanced footwear comfort

A shoe wearer's comfort is related to the shape of the footbed of a shoe. Even though the footbed shape is important in footwear design, there exists no methodology to evaluate the existing guidelines used in last making. Thirty-two females participated in an experiment where heel seat length, heel seat inclination and heel height were investigated using the profile assessment device. The dependent variables were plantar pressure and perceived feeling of each participant. The results show that perceived feel is best for wedge angles of 4 degrees and 5 degrees at a heel height of 25 mm, 10 degrees and 11 degrees at a heel height of 50 mm and 16 degrees and 18 degrees at a heel height of 75 mm. A regression model was derived and this explained approximately 80% of the variation of perceived feeling with the contact area, peak plantar pressure and percentage of force acting on the forefoot region. Both heel wedge angle and heel seat length play an important role in the perceived feel of high-heeled shoes. This study, in relation to the load-bearing heel part of a shoe, highlights the importance of good footbed design. The findings can be used to design footwear with enhanced comfort.

How long is long enough? Evaluating sampling durations for low back EMG assessment

Few ergonomic measurement tools explicitly state when and how to sample exposures. Traditional ergonomic sampling has used short, task-based or worst-case measurements, but these may misrepresent exposures, since they neglect the temporal variations throughout the workday. Understanding the representativeness of data from shorter measurement durations compared with full-shift measurements allows for optimization of measurements resources. This study compared a variety of low back electromyography (EMG) exposure metrics measured over a full-shift with the same metrics sampled over shorter durations to identify whether shorter durations provide representative measures of exposure. Portable EMG devices were used to measure low back EMG for 138 full work shifts in a range of jobs in heavy industry. Using a random start time, each full shift of data was resampled for 4 hr, 2 hr, 1 hr, 10 min, and 2 min. Exposure metrics from each duration were compared with the full shift using absolute and percent error, bias, and limits of agreement. Comparisons between one full shift and two full shifts were made for the subset of 35 workers with two measured workdays. Compared with full-shift data, bias is very low at all sampling durations. However, as sampling durations decreased from a full-shift to a few min, the absolute error, percentage error, and limits of agreement for exposure estimates show more deviation from full-day estimates. Estimates of mean and 90th percentile exposure averaged 8% error for 4-hr durations and 14% error for 2-hr durations. The errors for 4-and 2-hr measurement durations may be acceptable for many applications, particularly if the trade-off is measuring more subjects. Sampling durations of 1 hr or less seem likely to produce very large errors over all exposure metrics, particularly for the range and peak exposures. Depending on the purpose of measurement and the detail required, 4 hr or even 2 hr appears to be long enough to reasonably estimate full-shift exposure.