Evaluating The Usability of a Web Software and Determining its Correlation with Fatigue and Burnout Factor in Office Personnel of a Health Center in Tehran City

Introduction: The importance of assessing and identifying ergonomic risk factors in the workplace among office workers has increased with the increase in occupational tasks of computer and increasing the risk of physical and mental disorders among its users. One of these factors is the usability of computer hardware and software. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the applicability of office automation software and to measure the fatigue and burnout of employees in an office and determine their correlation. Methods: In this study, in one of the health centers of Tehran City, staff fatigue, burnout and their use of office automation software using multidimensional job fatigue inventory (MFI-20), maslach burnout inventory (MBI), and the standard questionnaire was used to evaluate the usability of the software. Data were analyzed by SPSS 23 software. Results: The findings of this study showed that automation software was very useful for most users. According to the findings of this study, there was a significant negative correlation between software usability and emotional exhaustion dimensions, the reduction of personal inadequacy, general fatigue, and physical fatigue with correlation coefficients of -0.228, -0.511, -0.372 and -0.287, respectively.. The greater the usability of the software, the lower the level of employee fatigue and fatigue. Conclusion: The applicability of job software is effective in burnout and fatigue of employees. Therefore, the usable design of such web-based software should be considered by office systems and software developers

Determining Changes in Electromyography Indices when Measuring Maximum Acceptable Weight of Lift in Iranian Male Students

BACKGROUND

In spite of the increasing degree of automation in industry, manual material handling (MMH) is still performed in many occupational settings. The aim of the current study was to determine the maximum acceptable weight of lift using psychophysical and electromyography indices.

METHODS

This experimental study was conducted among 15 male students recruited from Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Each participant performed 18 different lifting tasks which involved three lifting frequencies, three lifting heights and two box sizes. Each set of experiments was conducted during the 20 min work period using free-style lifting technique and subjective as well as objective assessment methodologies. SPSS version 18 software was used for descriptive and analytical analyses by Friedman, Wilcoxon and Spearman correlation techniques.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated that muscle activity increased with increasing frequency, height of lift and box size (P<0.05). Meanwhile, MAWLs obtained in this study are lower than those in Snook table (P<0.05). In this study, the level of muscle activity in percent MVC in relation to the erector spine muscles in L3 and T9 regions as well as left and right abdominal external oblique muscles were at 38.89%, 27.78%, 11.11% and 5.55% in terms of muscle activity is more than 70% MVC, respectively. The results of Wilcoxon test revealed that for both small and large boxes under all conditions, significant differences were detected between the beginning and end of the test values for MPF of erector spine in L3 and T9 regions, and left and right abdominal external oblique muscles (P<0.05). The results of Spearman correlation test showed that there was a significant relation between the MAWL, RMS and MPF of the muscles in all test conditions (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Based on the results of this study, it was concluded if muscle activity is more than 70% of MVC, the values of Snook tables should be revisited. Furthermore, the biomechanical perspective should receive special attention in determining the standards for MMH.