ERGONOMIC ASPECTS OF OLDER WORKERS POSTURAL BALANCE

拟议的研究提供了一个实验设计，以解决国家职业研究议程（NORA）的两个优先领域，即：“与工作有关的创伤性伤害”和“处于危险中的特殊人群——老年工人所经历的特殊危险因素的性质和程度”随着美国的老龄化，预计到2000年，年龄在45岁至64岁之间的人口将至少达到5900万。随着法定退休年龄的废除，将高龄劳动者视为资源的观点正在取代将高龄劳动者视为负担的观点。因此，需要仔细研究这一新的老年工人队伍，以确定他们的能力和局限性，根据一些与工作相关的要求和任务相关的环境风险因素。因此，本研究将重点研究年龄对113名工人在任务执行中神经肌肉表现和保持安全直立姿势平衡能力的影响，例如在不同类型的表面（已知光滑的水平和坡道表面）上伸展和弯曲拾取物体和手持重物的能力。拟议研究的结果将扩大我们目前关于年轻（21岁至55岁）工人能力和限制的数据库，以包括年龄在75岁以下的老年工人。基于本研究的结果，在未来的研究中可以制定预防跌倒/失去平衡的干预策略：(1)改善次优环境条件；(2)制定符合人体工程学的解决方案，将工作量降低到可接受的水平；(3)找出造成滑倒/坠落的危险因素的某些组合，以及(4)确定斜坡斜坡角度是否需要比职业安全及健康管理局目前所规定的要小。目前，没有任何标准规定在执行任务时需要在滑溜的坡道上安装扶手。拟议研究的结果将提供科学数据，以确定在各种风险因素组合下，老年工人是否有能力在坡道表面执行任务。

The proposed study provides an experimental design that addresses two of the priority areas of National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), i.e. "Work related traumatic injuries" and "Special population at risk-nature and magnitude of the special risk factors experienced by older workers" With the aging of America, it is projected that in the year 2000 there will be at least 59 million between the ages of 45 and 64 yrs. As mandatory retirement age has been abolished, the view of the older worker as a resource is replacing the perspective of the older workers as a liability. Therefore, this new growing workforce of elderly workers needs to be studied carefully to determine their abilities and limitations in the light of some of the work related demands and task associated and environmental risk factors. Therefore, the present study will focus on investigating the role of age associated influence on 113 workers' neuromuscular performance and ability to maintain safe upright postural balance during task performance, such as reaching and bending to pick up objects and walking with weights in hand on various types of surfaces (level and ramp surfaces of known slipperiness) with various kinds of shoe wear. The results from the proposed study will expand our current data base of younger (21 to 55 yrs.) workers' abilities and limitation to include those of older workers up to the age of 75 years. Based on results of the present study, intervention strategies for fall/loss of balance prevention can be developed in a future study: (1) by improving suboptimal environmental conditions; (2) by developing ergonomic solutions to bring the workload to acceptable levels; (3) by identifying certain combinations of risk factors that are more dangerous in producing slips/falls and (4) by determining if there is a need to have hand rails at ramp slope angles less than that currently required by OSHA. Currently, no criteria exists for the need to have handrails during task performance on ramps which are slippery. The results from the proposed study will provide scientific data to determine whether or not older workers are capable of performing tasks on ramp surfaces under various combinations of risk factors.