• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.223-231
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• 2002

Recently, work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) have rapidly increased and have been a major issue in the field of industrial safety. Of several physical risk factors for WMSDs, which include postures, vibration, repetitive work, speed or acceleration of movements, etc., awkward postures have been known as one of the major causes of WMSDs. For reducing the potential for injury as a result of postures, cost effective quantification of the magnitude for physical exposure to poor working postures is important and needed. To do this, several postural classification schemes have been developed and used in industrial sites. It is known that perceived discomfort for joint motions and muscle strength for females were much less than those for males. However, the existing postural classification schemes were developed without considering these gender effects. This study aims to develop a new postural classification scheme for female workers, based on the perceived discomfort for joint motions. The result showed that there was significant difference between the schemes for female and male. It was also found that when compared with OWAS, RULA and REBA, postural load was quantified more precisely with the developed scheme. It is recommended that different schemes according to gender of workers involved in work be used in order to accurately evaluate postural load of work postures.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.447-455
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• 1998

It is important to identify and evaluate poor working postures properly to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The purpose of this study is to develope a new upper body micropostural classification scheme for analyzing postural stress in industry. Most of the existing postural classification schemes were based either on the literature, or on simple biomechanical principles, or on a subjective ranking system. The scheme suggested in this study was based on perceived joint discomfort measured through experiment, in which nineteen subjects participated and the magnitude estimation method was employed to obtain subjects' joint discomfort. Also, the criteria for evaluating postural stress of working postures were presented for practitioners of health and safety to be able to redesign working methods and workplaces, which was based on maximum holding time by Miedema and other people. It is expected that the scheme developed in this study could be used as a valuable tool when evaluating working postures.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive posture classification scheme considering the effects of external load and motion repetition as well as those of working posture. The scheme was developed based on a series of existing empirical studies dealing with postural classification scheme, effects of external load and motion repetition. Ranges of joint motions, external load and motion repetition were divided into the groups with the same degree of discomforts. Each group was assigned a numerical relative discomfort score of code on the basis of discomfort values for the neutral position of elbow flexion. The criteria for evaluating stress of working postures were proposed based on the four distinct action categories, in order to enable practitioners to apply appropriate corrective actions. The proposed scheme was compared with OWAS, RULA and REBA. The comparison revealed that while the proposed scheme and RULA showed similar results for the working postures with light external load and non-repetitive postures, the former overestimated postural load for postures with moderate or heavy external load and repetitive postures than the latter.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.139-149
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• 2000

This study aims to review and assess the existing postural classification schemes used for evaluating postural loads in industry. The schemes can be classified into three categories: self-report, observational and instrument-based techniques depending upon how to record working postures. Of the three techniques, this study was mainly focused on the observational methods. The observational technique is most widely used in the industrial sites because it does not interfere with work, and is easy and simple to use and cost-effective without requiring the use of expensive equipment for estimating the angular deviation of a body segment from the neutral position. In spite of the usefulness and applicability, the techniques have some problems: 1) The existing observational techniques lack the consistency in the class limits of the motion categories in each body segment; 2) Most of them do not provide the post-analysis criteria needed to judge whether or not any posture is acceptable in view point of the postural load; and 3) They can not precisely evaluate the postural load for a given posture because the external loads and dynamic factors including acceleration, moment and force were not taken into consideration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.20 no.2 s.70
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• pp.127-132
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to compare representative posture classification schemes of OWAS, RULA and REBA in terms of correctness for postural load. The comparison was based on the evaluation results by the three methods for 224 working postures sampled from steel, electronics, automotive, and chemical industries. The results showed that OWAS and REBA generally underestimated postural stress than RULA irrespective of industry type, work performed and whether or not leg posture is balanced. While about $71\%\;and\;73\%$ of the 224 posture were evaluated with the action category/level 1 or 2 by OWAS and REBA respectively, about $60\%$ of the postures were classified into the action level of 3 or 4 by RULA. The coincidence rate of postural stress category between OWAS and RULA was just $33.5\%$, while the rate between RULA and REBA was $46.0\%$. It is concluded from the findings of this study and the previous research that compared to OWAS and REBA, RULA more precisely evaluates postural stress.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively investigate the effects of external load upper extremity posture on perceived discomfort. An experiment was conducted for measuring discomfort scores depending upon external loads and upper extremity postures, in which the free modules and numeric estimate method of the magnitude estimation was adopted as a tool for obtaining discomfort ratings. The upper extremity postures were controlled by wrist flexion/extension, elbow foexion, shoulder flexion, and shoulder adduction/abduction. The results showed that all experimental variables except shoulder adduction/abduction were significant at ${\alpha}$=0.01 or 0.05. The effect of external load was very much larger than that of upper extremity postures. Therefore, it is recommended that a new posture classification scheme taking effect of external load to into consideration be developed for quantifying postural load.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.31-35
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• 1998

Many reaearchers have reproted that poor body postures are associated with pains or symptoms of musculoskeletal dissoders. Therefore, the ergonomic evaluation of postural stresses as well as biomechanical stresses is important when a job such as automobile assembly tasks involves highly repetitive and/or prolonged poor body postures. A macropostural classification shema was developed to characterise various body postures occurring in automobile assembly tasks in the study. To specify a postural code and stress level to each body posture, perceived joint discomforts were subjectively evaluated in the lab experiments for the full range of motion in five human body joints. Based on the reaults, a postural classification scheme was developed where the full range of motion in each body joint was classified into several codes repressenting different stress levels. The automobile tasks were clustered into 12 types based on the result walk-in-surveillance and the possible posture codes for each task type are defined. I was exposed that the poor postural problems in automobile assembly tasks were concerned in most part with arms, trunk and neck. Application of te developed schema to seven operations in automobile assembly tasks showed that the schema can be used as a tool to identify the operations and tasks involving highly stressful body postures. The schema can also be utilised as a basis to prioritise the candidate assembly operations for redesign of work methods.

• IE interfaces
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.85-93
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• 2003

The purposes of this study are to investigate perceived discomfort for static joint motions, and to propose rankings for the joint motions based on the perceived discomfort. The perceived discomfort was measured through an experiment using the free modulus method of the magnitude estimation, in which ten healthy college-age female students participated. The results showed that joints, joint motions and their levels significantly affected the perceived discomfort at $\alpha$=0.01, and that the interaction of joints and joint motion levels was also significant. Based on the experimental results, three rankings were proposed by joint and joint motions, by joints and by joint motions, which were very different from the existing ones. Especially, the proposed rankings were different from the males' published before in their order and magnitude. These rankings can be used as a valuable tool for better understanding potentially adverse effects of poor working postures in industrial sites, and as basic data for developing the postural classification scheme.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.45-56
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to evaluate perceived discomfort of working postures in terms of upper body (back, shoulder, and elbow) flexions when an external load varies. Eighteen subjects participated in an experiment of appraising perceived discomfort of varying upper body postures with three levels of external loads given. The ANOVA results showed that the perceived discomfort of upper body postures was significantly affected by the external load. It was also apparent that the interactions between external load and upper body posture were significant (p< 0.001). The result implies that a new posture classification scheme for workload assessment methods may be in need to reflect such interactions between external load and upper body posture. In order to support the statement, a regression model of perceived discomfort of upper body postures obtained from the experiment was developed and compared to that of perceived discomfort of seven work-related postures found in automobile assembly operations. The correlation coefficient between predicted and actual values of perceived discomfort was about 0.96. It is expected that the result help to properly estimate the body stress resluting from worker's postures and external loads and can be used as a valuable design guideline on preventing work-related musculoskeletal diseases in industry.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.55-68
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• 2020

Objective : The purpose of this study is to summarize the best-available intervention evidence for children's sensory integration therapy, drawn from studies published domestically in Korea over the last 10 years. Methods : The articles evaluated in this study were collected from the RISS and DBpia databases using the search terms "sensory integration," "sensory processing," and "Ayres Sensory Integration (ASI)". A total of 19 papers were analyzed. The selected studies were then assessed using the Population, Intervention, Outcomes, and Comparison method, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) method, and the modified Evidence Alert Traffic Light Grading System. Results : Development delay was the most commonly applied diagnosis for children's sensory integration therapy and individual sensory integration therapy was the most frequently used intervention method. The intervention effect was 91 percent in the body structure and function of ICF. The areas concentrated on were sensory modulation, sensory processing, fine and gross motor, body scheme, body-self concept, balance, basic movement, postural control and hand function, attention, and self-esteem. Conclusion : This simple overview of the efficacy of children's sensory integration therapy provides a basis for easy understanding and use by therapists, researchers and families with children.