Community-Based Ergonomics

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Community-Based Ergonomics

• Year 3 Ergonomics
• G Szeto
• May 2002

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What is a Community

• Children
• Adults
• Elderlies
• Disabled
• Homes, schools, community centres
• Transportation
• Access to buildings
• ?Emphasis is on local community

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Ergonomics

• Matching the worker, the job, the tool and the
  environment

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Benefits of ergonomics

• Employee / worker
• reduce risk of injury
• better job satisfaction
• Employer
• Reduced payments for compensation
• Less staff turnover
• Increased productivity

• Users
• Community, organisations,
• institutions

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Examples of Ergonomic Projects

• Can you think of some of the student projects
  that can be considered examples of ergonomic
  projects for the community?

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Matching community needs with ergonomic
interventions

• Community needs
• Elderlymobility, access, activities
• AdultWork, leisure (sports), daily activities
  (home, office, community places)
• Child school, leisure
• Disabled persons school, work, mobility

• Ergonomic interventions
• identify problems
• conduct assessment
• provide recommendations
• conduct training, education
• health promotion
• modifications of environment, tools, work
  organisation
• Product design

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Example 1

• You are a physiotherapist employed by a new
  nursing home. Your job duty includes designing
  the space and equipment of the physiotherapy
  department. The head of the nursing home also
  wants your input into the design of the
  accommodation area of the residents.
• How will you go about doing this ?
• Can your knowledge in ergonomics be used here?

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The Person(s)

• What are the characteristics of the elderly
  residents? Physical, psychosocial, behavioural..
• What are their needs? persons with arthritis,
  neurological problems, orthopaedic problems,
  dementia
• What will they be doing? Physiotherapy dept
  activities, equipment,
• Residential area - what opinion can you offer to
  the administrator of nursing home?

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The Work (Activities) the Environment

• Physiotherapy department - treatment equipment,
• Furniture - beds, chairs,
• Facilities - doorways, toilets, access,
• Organisation of activities - matching with
  organisation of space

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Designing workstations, access in buildings,
public places for wheelchair users
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Anthropometric data on disabled persons

• Pheasant (1986) Bodyspace
• Kumar (Ed) Perspectives in Rehabilitation
  Ergononomics Chapter 12, Anthropometry for the
  needs of disabled people
• Databases on wheelchair users (mostly spinal cord
  injuries)Sitting heights, reach heights, wc
  width and depth
• Elderly persons seating measurements,
  bars/rails in corridors, access/support in
  toileting, bathing facilities

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Integrate your knowledge and apply them..

• Anthropometric factors
• Work organisation
• Biomechanics
• Disease and Pathology
• EPT modalities
• Exercise therapy
• Assistive devices
• How the workers/users are matched with the
  work/activities and the environment

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Example 2 Transportation in Hong Kong

• Essential part of community life
• How can knowledge of ergonomics be applied?
• Do you see evidence of this knowledge being
  applied?
• Can you have a dual role of physiotherapist as
  well as ergonomist?
• Why would the bus co. consult you instead of
  somoone from another profession, e.g. engineer?

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Examples of research studies

• Courtney, AJ and Wong MH. ( 1985). Anthropometry
  of the Hong Kong male and the design of bus
  driver cabs. Applied Ergonomics, 16(4), 259-266.
• Examined the matching of the anthropometric
  factors of Hong Kong male chinese bus drivers
  with the design of the drivers seat, steering
  wheel etc which are mainly designed for overseas
  drivers

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What are the important considerations?

• Access
• Movements within the vehicle
• Support to body in appropriate places
• Comfort in travel -seats design, arrangement
• Physical sizes of passengers
• Carrying capacity
• What else?

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Consideration of different aspects of sitting
posture Consideration of anthropometric factors
in different populations - males, females,
children, elderly
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The Issues of Seating

• Elderly persons
• Persons with disability
• Normal healthy populations user groups
• public transport
• restaurants
• buildings, facilities (e.g.sport arena)
• dental patients
• offices
• schools

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Methods to study the problem of seating

• Subjective discomfort
• Biomechanical studies
• distribution of pressure on the seat
• pressures in the lumbar spine, alignment in the
  lumbar spine
• movements in and out of chair
• design of chair to match job, activity,
  environment

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Economy Class Syndrome

• Lots of media attention Is it something new?
• Drawing attention to ergonomic needs
• Seating issue - different work situations,
  non-stop sitting for entire shift
• Space is a big problem in Hong Kong
• Back problems, knee problems, in addition to
  circulation problems
• Can you think of some jobs that are prone to this
  problem?

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Examples of student projects in other institutions

• http//ergo.human.cornell.edu/HotelEzra/hecwebpage
  /hotelergo.html

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Example 3 Ergonomics for School Children

• Problems identified
• school bags
• school furniture
• school activities
• school buildings
• Matching the student with the work

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Task
Workstation
Environment
Psycho-social
Posture
Vision
Visual Discomfort
Musculoskeletal Discomfort
Growth and Health of Child/Adult
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Potential harmful effects of Intensive computer
use

• Musculoskeletal discomfort/injuries
• Musculoskeletal growth - structural changes,
  postural changes
• Visual discomfort ? visual impairment
• Psychosocial skills - social interactions with
  people
• some mental/motor skills enhanced but other
  skills neglected

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2 computer rooms in a secondary school
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Example 4 Community-based health education
project

• March 2000
• Office workers health promotion campaign
• jointly organised by dept of RS and Clerical and
  Professional Employees Assoc
• Series of activities
• Outdoor Exhibition
• Office workers health promotion day
• Press conference and open forum

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Office Workers Health Promotion Day

• Education talk
• Demonstration of exercises
• Assessment of posture ROM
• Display of VDU furniture ( accessories) and
  assessment of suitable chair and desk height
• Questionaire survey
• Counselling

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Outcome

• Whole campaign - over 2000 persons reached
• Health promotion day - over 200 attended
• Newspaper writeup - 9-10 newspapers
• Good example of promotion of the concept and
  awareness to general public
• Continuation of activities
• Questionaire survey - generated
• useful data

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Future opportunities

• Community based ergonomics focus more on users
  instead of workers
• Health promotion among community
• Promotion of ergonomics among working populations
  and community groups
• Increasing awareness of ergonomics
• Increasing demand for ergonomic services

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Community Ergonomics

• Applying ergonomic principles to USER GOURPS
• in addition to workers

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Potential areas of development for PT and OT

• Specialising in treatment of work injuries and
  work rehabilitation programs
• Education and promotion of occupational safety
  and health
• Worksite analysis and consultancy
• Ergonomics for community groups
• Research
• education/training

Consultancy
research
Education
Product Design Marketing