ABSTRACT
As early as 1700, Bernardino Ramazzini, one of the founders of occupational medicine, had associated certain physical activities with musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). He postulated that certain violent and irregular motions and unnatural postures of the body impair the internal structure (Snook et al., 1988). Currently, much eort is directed toward a better understanding of work-related MSD involving the back, cervical spine, and upper extremities (Mousavi et al. 2011). e World Health Organization (WHO) has dened occupational diseases as those work-related diseases where the relationship to specic causative factors at work has been fully established (WHO, 1985). Other work-related diseases may have a weaker or unclear association to working conditions. ey may be aggravated, accelerated, or exacerbated by workplace factors and may lead to impairment of workers’ performance. Hence, obtaining the occupational history is crucial for proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment of work-related disorders. e occupational physician must consider the conditions of both the workplace and the worker in evaluating injured workers. Biomechanical and ergonomic evaluators have developed a series of techniques for
37.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 37-1 37.2 Principles .......................................................................................... 37-2
37.5 Conclusions.................................................................................... 37-15 Acknowledgments .................................................................................... 37-18 Dening Terms ......................................................................................... 37-18 References .................................................................................................. 37-18
quantication of the task demands and evaluation of the stresses in the workplace. Functional capacity evaluation has also been advanced to quantify the maximum performance capability of workers. e motto of ergonomics is to avoid the mismatch between the task demand and functional capacity of individuals. A multidisciplinary group of physicians and engineers constitutes the rehabilitation team that work together to implement the prevention measures. rough proper workplace design, workplace stressors could be minimized. It is expected that one-third of the compensable low back pain (LBP) in industry could be prevented by proper ergonomic workplace or task design. In addition to reducing the probability of both the initial and recurring episodes, proper ergonomic design allows earlier return to work of injured workers by keeping the task demands at a lower level. Unfortunately, ergonomists are oen asked to redesign the task or the workplace aer a high incidence of injuries has already been experienced. e next preventive measure that has been suggested is preplacement of workers based on the medical history, strength, and physical examinations (Snook et al., 1988). Training and education have been the third prevention strategy in the reduction of MSD. Some components of these educational packages such as “back schools” and the teaching of “proper body mechanics” have been used in the rehabilitation phase of injured workers as well.
