Journal of Health and Safety at Work

Introduction: Nowadays, computers are integral component of all workplaces. Moreover, employees healthstatus is directly associated with their occupational stress level. The aim of the present study was to investigative the effect of ergonomic training and intervention on reduction of occupational stress among computer users in welfare organization in Rasht city.

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Material and Method: In this semi experimental study, 283 female computer users, who were 30-40 years old with work experience of 5-15 years, were chosen as sample. The participants had at least one year experience of using computer and they had worked 3-4 hours with computer daily. The Osipow occupational stress questionnaire (1987) with Cronbach alpha 87% was applied for estimation of occupational stress. Then, 46 participants with moderate to high level of stress were selected and randomly divided into case ad control groups. Participants in a case group received practical and theoretical ergonomic training and also interventions (including armrest, foot rest, cushion, posture correction, reduction o work time duration, adjustment of the seat height according to individuals height, adjustment of eye-monitor distance). Finally, the obtained data were compared to those of control group, using covariance.

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Result: According to covariance analysis, ergonomic training and interventions lead to reduction of occupational stress of computer users.

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Conclusion: Training computer users and informing them of the ergonomic principals and also providing interventions such as correction of posture, reducing duration of work time, using armrest and footrest would have significant implication in reducing occupational stress among computer users.

Introduction: A high percentage of musculoskeletal disorders in workplaces occur due to awkward posture and non-ergonomic design of the work stations for lifting and carrying of materials. To avoid these injuries, jobs should be designed in a way that ergonomics risk factors are controlled properly. The aim of this study was to utilize ergonomics interventions to minimize ergonomics risk factors in bag packing unit in a mineral processing plant.

Material and Method: This cross sectional study was carried out among 20 workers of bag packing unit. Camera recording of working postures, evaluation of medical records, interview, and REBA technique were used to identify the ergonomic risk factors. Interventions included changing the conveyor belt height and the use of spring pallets (spring table). Data were analyzed using Paired T-Test by SPSS software version 18.

Result: Before implementing ergonomics intervention, a total of 75% of evaluated postures by REBA technique obtained score of 8-10 (very high risk level) and 25% had score of 11-15 (very high risk level) that correspond to the action level 3 and 4, respectively. Following the implementation of ergonomics interventions, a total of 90% of the analyzed postures showed action level 2 (moderate risk level) and the remainder 10 percent of evaluated postures showed high risk level. Comparison of REBA technique scores before and after implementing interventions showed a significant difference (P-value < 0.05).

Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, the implementation of ergonomics interventions has remarkably decreased the required action level and it may be able to improve work-related postures.