Ergonomic Risk Assessment of Musculoskeletal Disorders in a Cement Factory Workers Using QEC Technique

Abstract

Background and Objective: Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) have been a major cause of work-related absences and medical costs. Therefore, the present study caried out to determine the prevalence of MSDs and its risk factors among a cement factory using the Quick exposure Check (QEC) technique. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 150 workers of a cement factory in southeastern of Iran, were surveyed by census method. For this object we used some tools included a demographic questionnaire, a Nordic questionnaire, and a QEC checklist. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were performed using SPSS 20 software. Significance level in this study was considered to p-value less than 0.05. Results: The mean of age and work experience of the subjects were 35.91±6.38 and 9.03±5.73 years, respectively. The prevalence of MSDs in this study was 48.7%. The highest and lowest prevalence were in the lumbar and elbows (24% and 4.7%, respectively). only 27.3% of the cases, had an acceptable exposure levels to MSDs related risk factors, and the workstation of 60.6% of workers required investigations and ergonomic interventions immediately. There was a significant relationship between work experience and neck pain (P = 0.015). Upper back pain was affected by work experience and limb score (P = 0.010 and P = 0.012, respectively). The final effective variable on low back pain was work experience (P = 0.010). It was also found that none of the our study variables had a significant effect on pain in shoulder and arm / elbow areas (P> 0.05). Conclusion: Due to the young workforce in the mentioned factory, the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was lower than similar communities and the results showed that QEC method in some organs can be a good predictor for these disorders.

Keywords

• musculoskeletal disorders
• msds
• qec
• risk assessment
• cement factory
• ergonomics