Evaluation of a participatory ergonomic intervention aimed at improving musculoskeletal health.

Background: Participatory ergonomic (PE) interventions have been increasingly utilized to deal with work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD).

Methods: Using a longitudinal quasi-experimental design, a PE process was launched at one depot of a large courier company, with a nearby depot serving as a control. Evaluations focused on 122 employees across the two depots who participated in both pre- and post-questionnaires.

Study of the effectiveness of a participatory ergonomics intervention in reducing worker pain severity through physical exposure pathways.

A participatory ergonomics programme was implemented in an automotive parts manufacturing factory. An ergonomics change team was formed composed of members from management and the organized labour union. It was hypothesized that the physical change projects implemented as part of this process would result in decreased worker exposures to peak and cumulative physical demands and reduced worker perceptions of physical effort and pain severity.

The effects of job rotation on the risk of reporting low back pain.

Job rotation has been widely recommended as an administrative control to reduce the risk of developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders. However, evidence of its benefits are hard to find in the literature. The effect of job rotation on predictions for the risk of reporting low back pain was estimated using Low Back Pain Reporting (LBPR) and Time Weighted Average (TWA) approaches.