Reducing risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders through optimizing workplace design

与工作有关的肌肉骨骼疾病仍然是工业经济和社会负担的一个来源。这与不断提高生产力和质量的需要相平衡。这些不一定是相互竞争的利益。随着对工人的生物力学和生理负荷与工作性质的相互作用的理解的增加，优化是可能的，这将有利于双方的利益，允许更安全和更有生产力的工作场所，减少与补偿相关的经济成本，包括直接和间接的（例如培训，损失的生产力等）。并提高在受伤发生之前设计出受伤的能力。这项研究计划的目的是通过提高对任务的工程措施（例如，周期时间，占空比，所需的力量，工作站布局）和身体内部负荷之间的关系的理解，以减少工作相关的肌肉骨骼疾病的负担。重复或连续刺激相同的肌肉纤维可能会导致肌肉损伤，由于局部肌肉疲劳。研究发现，充分的肌肉休息可以降低肌肉骨骼疼痛的患病率。我们实验室的持续研究表明，在重复的手动任务中，只有一部分可用的休息被肌肉利用，其他任务因素如力量，姿势，准确性和关节运动的方向会影响利用率。目前的工作场所风险评估技术并没有捕捉到这种复杂的相互作用，也没有积极主动的技术可用于纳入工作站的设计过程。特别有趣的是，我们发现了不同前臂姿势（旋前/旋后）的不同肌肉疲劳的证据。前臂旋转需要前臂肌肉组织在通过手腕时的动作线的复杂变化。虽然众所周知，“手腕扭曲”是工作相关肌肉骨骼疾病的一个风险因素，但需要一种更客观的方法来捕捉前臂旋转的复杂影响，并将其纳入设计过程。更好地了解这些风险因素如何相互作用，将使我们能够创建工具来优化工作设计，降低受伤的风险，同时优化生产力。

Work related musculoskeletal disorders continue to be a source of economic and social burden in industry. This is balanced against the continual need for productivity and quality gains. These need not be competing interests. With increased understanding of the interaction of the biomechanical and physiological loads on the worker and the properties of the job, optimizations are possible that will benefit both interests, allowing for a safer and more productive workplace, reduced economic costs associated with compensation, both direct and indirect (e.g. training, lost productivity etc.) and increasing ability to design out injuries before they happen. The objective of this research program is to reduce the burden of work related musculoskeletal disorders through improved understanding of the relationship between engineering measures of task (e.g. cycle times, duty cycle, forces required, workstation layout) and the internal loads on the body. Repetitive or continuous stimulation of the same muscle fibres may result in muscle injury due to localized muscle fatigue. Studies have found reduced prevalence of musculoskeletal pain with adequate muscle rest. Continuing research in our laboratory has shown that only a portion of available rest in a repetitive manual task is utilized by muscle and other task factors such as force, posture, accuracy and direction of joint movement affect the utilization. Current workplace risk assessment techniques do not capture this complex interaction and no proactive techniques are available for incorporation into the workstation design process. Of unique interest we have found evidence of differential muscle fatigue in different forearm postures (pronation/supination). Forearm rotation requires a complex change in the lines of action of the forearm musculature as it passes through the wrist. While it is known that "wrist twist" is a risk factor for Work-Related Musculoskeletal disorders, a more objective approach is required to capture the complex effects of forearm rotation and incorporate them into the design process. A better understanding of how these risk factors interact will allow us to create tools to optimize work design, decreasing the risk of injury while optimizing the productivity.