Validity of long-term and short-term recall of occupational sitting time in Finnish and Chinese office workers

Background As sedentary behavior is a global health issue, there is a need for methods of self-reported sitting assessment. The accuracy and reliability of these methods should also be tested in various populations and different cultural contexts. This study examined the validity of long-term and short-term recall of occupational sitting time in Finnish and Chinese subgroups. Methods Two cohort groups of office-based workers (58.6% female, age range 22–67 years) participated: a Finnish group (FIN, n = 34) and a Chinese group (CHI, n = 36). Long-term (past 3-month sitting) and short-term (daily sitting assessed on 5 consecutive days) single-item measures were used to assess self-reported occ…

Delivery Truck Drivers’ Work Outside Their Cabs: Ergonomic Video Analyses Supplemented with National Accident Statistics

Delivery truck drivers' work contains various physically and psychosocially demanding work situations. Fifteen drivers' and 8 other stakeholders' identifications of such work situations were examined by video analyses in this study. The identifications were analyzed in-depth by the researchers and compared with statistics on 3,507 accidents in the Finnish trucking industry. The aim was to determine what kind of identifications were made and to what degree the identifications coincided among the participants and with the accident statistics. The drivers' identifications differed from the statistics data. The statistics showed a significantly higher relative frequency of movement-related situ…

Critical Factors in Opening Pharmaceutical Packages: a Usability Study among Healthcare Workers, Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Elderly Women

Birthing Support for Midwives and Mothers - ErgonomicTesting and Product Development

Purpose: To further develop an ergonomic birthing support for increasing comfortable postures for midwives and mothers during deliveries. Methods and Results: First, the prototype of the birthing support and six birthing postures were tested with 8 midwives, 2 physicians, and 10 pregnant women in the last month of their pregnancy using visual analogue scales (VASs) and the System Usability Scale (SUS). According to the midwives and mothers, the best birthing postures were those with the mother sitting on the birthing support with the bed crosswise or the mother laying on her side on the bed with her leg on the birthing support. In the second stage of the study, 4 experts carried out an expe…

Elinikäistä osallistumista vai elämää työ edellä? : työikäisten monialaisten palveluiden yhteensovittaminen ja vaikuttavuuden arviointi -loppuraportti

Tavoitteenamme oli tuottaa kokonaiskuva hallinnonalat ja palvelujärjestelmät ylittävästä työikäisten työkyvyn ja työllistymisen tuen palveluiden kokonaisuudesta ja kuvata, miten yhteensovitettavien palveluiden tuloksellisuutta ja vaikuttavuutta voidaan arvioida. Tarkastelimme yhteensovittamista monialaisten palveluiden palveluintegraation, vaikuttavuuden arvioinnin ja systeemisen muutostarpeen ennakoinnin näkökulmista. Aineistoinamme olivat kirjallisuuskatsaukset, asiakkaiden ja asiantuntijoiden haastattelut ja kyselyt, kansalliset rekisterit ja skenaariotyöpajatyöskentely. Tulostemme mukaan työkyvyn ja työllistymisen tuen palveluiden yhteensovittaminen ja asiakkaan tarpeita vastaava palvel…

User-oriented evaluation of mechanical single-channel axial pipettes.

Hand tools should be designed so that they are comfortable to use, fit the hand and are user-oriented. Six different manual, single-channel axial pipettes were evaluated for such objective outcomes as muscular activity, wrist postures and efficiency, as well as for subjective outcomes concerning self-assessed features of pipette usability and musculoskeletal strain. Ten experienced laboratory employees volunteered for the study. The results showed that light and short pipettes with better tool comfort resulted in reduced muscular activity and perceived musculoskeletal strain when they were compared with a long and heavy pipette. There were no differences in the efficiency between the differ…

Evaluation of ergonomics and efficacy of instruments in dentistry

Abstract: Purpose: To evaluate the ergonomics and efficacy of five instruments used in dentistry for scaling and root planing. Methods: This experimental study with a comparative cross-sectional design was carried out during a simulated scaling and root planing task. Seven female dentists and one dental hygienist aged 26–58 years participated. Five instruments were evaluated in a subjective analysis of usability and musculoskeletal strain and with measurements of muscular activity, postures of the upper limbs, and work productivity. Results: The instruments with the thickest (diameter of 12–14 mm) silicon handles caused the lowest perceived strain in both the fingers/palm and the thumb. Wor…

Validity of long-term and short-term recall of occupational sitting time in Finnish and Chinese office workers.

Abstract Background As sedentary behavior is a global health issue, there is a need for methods of self-reported sitting assessment. The accuracy and reliability of these methods should also be tested in various populations and different cultural contexts. This study examined the validity of long-term and short-term recall of occupational sitting time in Finnish and Chinese subgroups. Methods Two cohort groups of office-based workers (58.6% female, age range 22–67 years) participated: a Finnish group (FIN, n  = 34) and a Chinese group (CHI, n  = 36). Long-term (past 3-month sitting) and short-term (daily sitting assessed on 5 consecutive days) single-item measures were used to assess self-r…

Effects of environmental intervention on sedentary time, musculoskeletal comfort and work ability in office workers

Sit-stand workstations offer a potential strategy to reduce prolonged occupational sitting. This controlled intervention study examined the effects of an environmental intervention on occupational sedentary time, musculoskeletal comfort and work ability, and the usability of sit-stand workstations in office work via a self-reported questionnaire. The intervention group (n = 24) used sit-stand workstations during the 6-month intervention period, and the control group (n = 21) used traditional sitting workstations. The results showed that working at sit-stand workstations can reduce sitting time significantly compared to control workstations (-6.7% vs. 5.0%, p = .019), which is reallocated mo…

Lean design improves both health-care facilities and processes: a literature review

This article presents a literature review of the challenges and possibilities for Lean design in modern health-care facilities. Many of today's health-care facilities are in dire need of renovation since limited financial resources among health-care demand improved work process efficiency, safety and employee well-being. Lean philosophy has been successfully implemented into hospitals with up-and-running hospital processes, but has not been thoroughly tested as a design methodology. The principles of Lean do not contradict with user-centric, participatory or ergonomic design approaches and thus the possibilities of using Lean as a complementary design methodology to the aforementioned appro…

Ergonomic Comparison of a Sit-Stand Workstation With a Traditional Workstation in Visual Display Unit Work

Purpose: To compare ergonomics of an electrically adjustable sit-stand workstation with a traditional workstation in video display unit (VDU) work. Methods: Twelve female workers (aged 27-53 years) participated in this experimental study. Electromyography, wrist postures, subjective assessments, and productivity were used to make the ergonomic comparison. Results: The muscle activity of the right trapezius (p=0.01) and left wrist extensors (p=0.02), extension of the right (p=0.05) and left (p=0.002) wrist, and perceived strain of the arms (p=0.05) were lower and productivity was better (p=0.02) when the workers used a low-sitting, high-sitting, or standing posture at the sit-stand workstati…

Note: Critical Factors in Opening Pharmaceutical Packages: a Usability Study among Healthcare Workers, Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Elderly Women

This cross-sectional study compared the usability of pharmaceutical packages to determine the critical factors involved in packages with different opening mechanisms. Four packaging types (a bottle with a screw cap, a box with a pill plate, disposable plastic droppers with a container and a jar with a hinge cap) were evaluated by 45 women (nurses, older women and women with rheumatoid arthritis). Usability was evaluated for subjective measures related to the ease of opening and for objective measures related to the time needed to open the packaging, electrical muscular activity (electromyography, EMG) and ranges of motion of the upper extremities. Of the arthritic women, 13% were unable to …