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The impact of a change in work posture from seated to stand‐up on work‐related musculoskeletal disorders among sewing‐machine operators
Author(s) -
Grobler Susan H.,
Mostert Karien,
Becker Piet
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.22865
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , poisson regression , sitting , body mass index , overweight , physical therapy , obesity , physical medicine and rehabilitation , population , environmental health , physics , pathology , optics
Background Work‐related postural change could lead to improved musculoskeletal health. Method(s) In a quantitative, retrospective, longitudinal study, data of work‐related musculoskeletal disorders of 123 sewing‐machine operators were captured for 4.5 years, and analysed using Poisson regression. Results Stand‐up work posture (SUWP) reduced the incidence for spinal disorders (SD) to 0.29 fold the incidence for sitting work posture (SWP) ( P < 0.001). Morbid obesity had significantly increased ( P = 0.04) incidence of upper limb disorders (ULD), 3.35 times that of normal body mass index (BMI) (regardless of work posture). SUWP was associated with increased IRR (1.49) for lower limb disorders (LLD). LLDs were associated with obesity (overweight (IRR = 2.58; P = 0.08), obese (IRR = 2.45; P = 0.09), and morbidly obese (IRR = 6.24; P = 0.001)). Conclusions The protective benefit of the SUWP was statistically significant for SD incidence. Owing to high mean BMI, SUWP had a negative impact on the incidence of LLDs for the first 2 months.