• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 2020

Background: Residential and commercial cleaning is a part of our daily routine to maintain sanitation around the environment. Health care of professionals involved in such cleaning activities has become a major concern all over the world. The present study investigates the risk of musculoskeletal disorders in professional cleaners involved in floor mopping tasks. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 132 mopping professionals using a modified Nordic questionnaire. The Pearson correlation test was implemented to study the association of perceived pain with work experience. The muscle strain and postural risk were evaluated by means of three-channel electromyography and real-time motion capture respectively of 15 professionals during floor mopping. Results: Regarding musculoskeletal injuries, risk was reported majorly in the right hand, lower back, left wrist, right shoulder, left biceps, and right wrist of the workers. Work experience had a low negative association with MSDs in the left wrist, right wrist, right elbow, lower back, and right lower arm (p < 0.01). Surface EMG showed occurrence of higher muscle activity in upper trapezius and biceps brachii (BB) muscles of the dominant hand and flexor carpi radialis and BB muscles of the nondominant hand positioned at the upper and lower portion of the mop rod, respectively. Conclusion: Ergonomic mediations should be executed to lessen the observed risk of musculoskeletal injuries in this professional group of workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.515-524
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• 2012

PURPOSE: It is known that work stress was linked to WRMDs in workplace. The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMDs) related to job stress among prosthetists and orthotists. METHODS: Eighty-six self-reported symptoms of discomfort (SRSD) and job stress were collected by questionnaire and analyzed. RESULTS: The results were as follows: Over 70% of respondents had WRMDs. The shoulder was the most painful region and each of "within 15 minutes", "once a week" and "severe moving or doing exercise" items were main characteristics in the SRSD. Finally, the "repetition of simple work" item in job stress ranked as resulting in "often discomfort" in over 43% of respondents. Additionally, there was a statistically significant correlation between job stress and pain intensity (p<.05, $r_s$=.36). CONCLUSION: Further studies are needed to identify the factors affecting musculoskeletal symptoms and job stress of prosthetists and orthotists in Korea.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.125-133
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• 2016

Objective: The aim of this study is to figure out the level of Functional Movement Screen (FMS) of 122 automobile manufacturing workers and to set the FMS score for predicting risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Background: Although today's industrial sites have been becoming automated rapidly, the risks of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) have been on the rise. In the case of WMSDs, it is important to control WMSDs at the early stage. Early detection of WMSDs is very important for the successful treatment. However, the medical examination puts a great financial burden on most workers. To reduce their burden, there is one test to check the musculoskeletal functional condition and to predict the risk of injury, which is called FMS. Method: This research tested the FMS score of 122 workers at a motor company, and also conducted a questionnaire survey of individual characteristics and job characteristics. Results: For the 122 subjects, the average score of FMS is $14.63{\pm}2.27$. There is a negative correlation between FMS and their ages and BMI (p <0.05). FMS is higher when exercising regularly (p <0.05). The FMS scores of musculoskeletal disorder patients are lower than those of normal workers (p <0.05). While it is more likely to become a musculoskeletal disorder patient when FMS score is less than 14, it is more likely to become a normal worker when FMS score is more than or equal to 14. Conclusion: According to the result of FMS test, there is a score difference between individuals with musculoskeletal disorders and normal ones. FMS scores can also predict and identify workers with risk of the musculoskeletal disorders. Application: According to this study, FMS can be expected to have a positive effect on the prevention of WMSDs in worksites.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.443-450
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• 2011

Objective: The aim of this paper is to introduce ergonomic guidelines and intervention procedures for farm workers. Background: It is necessary to ameliorate the conditions of risky and hazardous work for farm workers. Method: Various references and books have been reviewed to assess ergonomic guidelines and intervention procedures for farm workers. Results: Human centered intervention has become an important approach not only to prevent musculoskeletal disorders but also to enhance the efficiency of work for farm workers. Conclusion: Farm work should be improved by active cooperation with researchers in field of ergonomics. Application: These results can be used to provide baseline information for more effective improvements of farm work.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.22-40
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• 2008

Unnatural working postures usually cause musculoskeletal problems for workers in work field, especially in traditional industry. Many analysis and survey methodologies have been developed to identify unnatural postures and disorder risks in workplaces. The Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System (OWAS) and Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) are the representative methods and applied widely. This study applied the both tools to investigate the work field of a manufacturing factory of the water heater's case. We divided the manufacturing process into nine workshops, took the pictures of working motions by DV camera and analyzed the postures on OWAS. From the OW AS results, we could identify the risks level of musculoskeletal symptoms as four Action Categories (AC). And from the comparison of OWAS and NMQ results, we could provide the suggestions to improve the working methods and environment. From the results of OWAS, we found that the operators' head/neck and back were above AC3 in some workshops. If the situation continued in long period, the operators might have the risk to get musculoskeletal symptoms. From the investigation of NMQ, we also found that the percentage of aches on neck, shoulders and lower back were higher than other parts of body. The correlation between aches and jobs was more than 75%. So we provided some suggestions to improve: work rotation and adjustment of work surface/height to fit in with Ergonomics. Then the risks of musculoskeletal symptoms would be reduced.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.6782-6792
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• 2014

This study examined the effects of the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorder and the burden of the body on work stress in a university hospital workers. The research surveyed 679 subjects. The relevant factors affecting the job stress were found to be female, young people age group, unmarried, shift work, work more than 8 hours, short experience workers. The work stress was significantly higher in the non-smoker (p=0.000), regular exercise/sports(p=0.022) and non-drinking(p=0.038) groups. In addition, the mental fatigue, presence of musculoskeletal symptoms, fatigue level, and marital status increase the risk of the work stress. The results showed that the burden of the body and musculoskeletal disorders are related interactively with each other.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.115-123
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• 2015

The study conducted statistical analysis of survey on the 239 workers participating in national Tower Crane installation/dismantlement in order to identify work environment and health hazard exposure of Tower Crane workers. Consequently for work related safety status of Tower Crane workers, the number of installation/dismantlement work was the highest at 15-20 times per month, and safety equipments were not arranged at work and they felt highly anxious when boarding on the Tower Crane. Furthermore, it is found that they feel anxious working in the influence of the weather, noise, vibration, wind, the sun ray, and structure characteristic. They have very low satisfaction in the insecureness of workplace and the work environment, and recognizes that their work affect highly on the health. 81.6% of workers have experienced accident at work, the cause of accidents were mainly due to poor work environment, and the health abnormality they have experienced were mostly fatigue and concentration reduction. For job stress, job demand and conflict in relationship were the highest sections. Total 66.5% of workers complained of musculoskeletal disorder related subjective symptom, and back pain patients were the highest of all groups.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.465-475
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• 2014

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of workload on musculoskeletal degeneration. Background: It is important that workers maintain a health body for a long time as a measure of aging workers. In order do so, it is necessary to find out if workload can effect on musculoskeletal degeneration. Method: Epidemiological studies on workload or occupation and disc degeneration, osteoarthritis of knee were identified through database and bibliography searches. Results: Epidemiological studies showed that workload certainly effect on musculoskeletal degeneration. But we couldn't know which of individual factors and occupational factors further contribute to the musculoskeletal degeneration. And we could find that studies on workload and genetic factors were very few. In addition, there was also very few studies that it was possible interaction between individual factors as obesity and occupational factors as heavy manual lifting. Conclusion: Our reviews suggest that it need to conduct study between workload and genetic factors for musculoskeletal degeneration. This further study can identify attributable risk of workload for musculoskeletal degeneration, and contribute to the measure of aging workers. Application: This paper can help to establish research plan for the measure of aging workers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Industrial Safety Conference
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.191-197
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• 1998

작업과 관련된 근골격계 장애(work-related musculoskeletal disorder)는 만성적인 근골격계 질병으로 작업과 관계되어 발생되어지는 신체 상태이다. 이와 관련되는 요인에는 반복적인 동작, 무리한 힘, 부적절한 자세, 기계적인 스트레스 및 진동, 온도 등이며 같은 의미로 자주 사용되는 용어로는 인간공학적 질병(ergonomic disorder), 누적 외상성 장애(cumulative trauma disorders), 반복 긴장성 부상(repetitive strain injuries)등이 있다. (중략)

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.135-142
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• 2006

The package loading process of tile lumbering industry is an operation that after a pair of workers binds three or six lumber into a unit and cut the both ends of the lumber, carry and pack and load the weight cargo of 30-50kg. The package loading process causes lots of noise and wood dust when the lumber are cut and brings about the main cause of the musculoskeletal disorder when workers carry the heavy goods. Therefore, we developed the monolithic package loading equipment cutting both ends that is enable to improve the working method and environments of the existing package loading process. The noise and wood dust were reduced by developing the device and the main cause of shirking duties on working place was solved by preventing the musculoskeletal disorder and improving the working environments as excluding the work of carrying heavy goods.