ABSTRACT
Psychophysical methods to assess postural stresses have been widely used alone or simultaneously with other objective measures like electromyography (EMG), since no objective method has been reported to be reliable to assess postural stresses (Li and Buckle, 1999; Putz-Anderson and Galinsky, 1993). Discomfort can be considered as an independent criterion for evaluating working postures (Dul et ai., 1994). Although discomfort does not refer directly to the risk of WMSDs, minimizing discomfort may contribute to reduction of the risk, since discomfort and WMSDs are both known to be rclated to the exposure of the musculoskeletal system to biomechanicalload (Miedema et ai., 1997).
