Iranian Journal of Ergonomics
Year:2019 | Volume:7 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:10

Background and Objectives: Playgrounds play a very important role in the development of children's communities and their physical skills. If these spaces are designed according to safety standards, they can contribute to the better social and physical growth of children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety status of children's playground equipment in Hamadan Luna Park according to the standards of the U. S. Consumer product safety commission (CPSC). Methods: The present study was a descriptive and analytical one. The statistical population included a total of 600 persons, working in one of the regions in the Tehran Municipality. Of the 600 staff, a total of 255 were selected as the available sample group. The instruments consisted of the questionnaires, including the individual and occupational information, the Nordic questionnaire, the Walton Quality of work life, and the checklist of the ergonomic indices of the working environment for the administrative staff. In order to analyze the data, Student’ s t-test and multiple regression analysis were used. Results: The results showed that among the main playground equipments, the spiral slide has the highest ratio of 76. 1% and the seesaws with 25% minimum compliance with the CPSC standard. Among the most commonly problems in this field the non-standard design of play equipment, incorrect assembly, installation and placement in use zones can be pointed. Conclusion: According to this paper’ s report, given the undeniable role of the safety of playground equipment in preventing possible harm to children, they must be secured and adapted to global standards.

Background and Objectives: The statics and actions of people during daily activities plays a major role in the physical and mental health and dynamics of the community. Given that humans deal with different things in a day, it is necessary that they are adapted to his features of body. The main goal of this study is to design and construct tables and ergonomic chairs for cartography, in accordance with the physical dimensions of students. Methods: In this research, one of the most used educational furniture, namely cartographic table and chairs, has been studied. After examining the satisfaction of this furniture, for ergonomic review and design in accordance with anthropometric dimensions, physical features of 160 students of art and 40 students of a technical and vocational school were measured. Then data was analyzed by SPSS 18 software. Results: According to the results, about 70 percent of the students did not feel comfortable with the features of former chair and table, except for the length of the thigh. There was no significant difference between the different educational foundations in the vocational schools and finally, with the help of tonality features, the drawing table and chair were designed which except for the height of the sitting space, in other indices, there was a 100% correlation with the dimensions of the student's body. Conclusion: In this study, there was a lot of dissatisfaction among students due to the lack of matching these educational materials with their physical dimensions which has caused physical, mental and psychological damage and poor quality of education. At the end of the study, through ergonomic design, matters of satisfaction, sustainability and reduced production costs and also the reasons for students' dissatisfaction with the drawing table and chairs is presented.

Background and Objectives: Musculoskeletal disorders are common in students and several causes may be considered for them. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between school furniture dimensions and trunk posture with musculoskeletal disorders in students of the sixth grade of elementary school in Karaj. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 346 boy students in sixth grade of elementary school in Karaj were selected. A flexible ruler was used to measure thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis angles. A 50-centimeter metal ruler was used to record ergonomic and anthropometric data of the students. Spearman’ s correlation test was run to analyze the collected data at the significant level of 0. 05. Results: The results showed that only 18%, 12% and 50% of desk height, seat depth and seat height measures were at normal ergonomic conditions, respectively. A negative significant correlation was observed between seat depth and total Nordic score (P<0. 05). Conclusion: It seems that school furniture dimensions in sixth grade boy students of elementary school in Karaj were not in acceptable condition. So, we suggest that ergonomics standardization of school furniture should be considered to prevent its possible consequences.

Background and Objectives: Musculoskeletal disorders cause about half of all work-related disease, and are the major cause of loss of time, increased costs, and labor injury. This study aims to evaluate the workload and its association with the prevalence of wrist disorders. It was carried out in the assembly workers of a manufacturing industry. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 120 female workers employed. Theit mental workload, physical workload and prevalence of wrist MSDs were evaluated using the NASA-TLX, the OCRA method and the Nordic wrist and hand scan questionnaire respectively. Results: The NASA-TLX showed that the physical demands and effort with mean scores of 78. 79 and 78. 37 were respectively the most important subjective mental workload (SMWL) scale. Also The results on the basis of the OCRA risk level showed that the highest right-hand risk was at risk level 3 and the highest left-hand risk was at risk level 1. The Statistical analysis showed that OCRA risk levels and mean scale physical demands and efforts were significantly higher in those with wrist pain than those without pain (P<0. 05). There was a direct correlation between the severity of the wrist pain with the OCRA risk index in both hands (P=0. 001) and the total score of NASA (r=0. 232, P<0. 05). Conclusion: It was revealed that mental load was high in assembly lines of the manufacturing industry and this result was also confirmed by physical evaluation. This study indicated that overall score of SMWL can affect the incidence of MSDs. That is why mental workload should be considered as a risk factor for MSDs.

Background and Objectives: Human errors in dialysis care can cause injury and death. One of the basic steps to increase reliability in this critical process is to analyze the error and identify the weaknesses of doing this process. Methods: The present study is a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. The SPAR-H method was used to identify and evaluate the probability of human error in the dialysis process. The hospital had six dialysis department and 16 dialysis machines with two nurses in each department. Data collection was done by observing the dialysis process, interview with nurses, reviewing the documents, methods of work and work instructions. Results: The present study showed that the probability of human error in the duties of a dialysis nurse is in the range of 0. 02-0. 44 (except for devices related to disorder), which is related to sub-duty preparing patient as lowest rate and sub-duty of the pump set-off as highest error rate. Conclusion: To reduce and control the human error in nursing duties in the dialysis department, control measures should be done such as increasing the number of personnel, changing the time shift of nurses, and training, preparing and revising the instructions.

Background and Objectives: Most accidents are caused by unsafe behaviors or human errors. Safety experts have argued that with the increasing focus on human behavior, it can significantly reduce accidents. The aim of the present study was to examine neuroticism, safety efficacy and regulatory focus as predictors of unsafe work behavior of employee Bidboland Gas Refining Company. Methods: The statistical population of the study consisted of all employees of operational and staffing departments of Bidboland Gas Refining Company in Khuzestan. The sample consisted of 273 employees who were selected using stratified random sampling. At first, the participants were divided into two groups, safe employees and unsafe employees by using Safety Behavior Scale (Salleh, 2010). Then to evaluate the variables studied, NEO personality characteristics (Costa & McCrae, 1992), safety efficacy (Brown, et al., 2000) and regulatory focus at work (Wallace & Chen, 2006) questionnaires were used. Data were analyzed through discriminant analysis and using SPSS 16 software. Results: According to the results, unsafe behavior of employees can be predicted from neuroticism, safety efficacy and regulatory focus and its dimensions (prevention focus and promotion focus). Conclusion: Neuroticism increases unsafe behaviors and safety efficacy and regulatory focus (prevention focus and promotion focus) decrease unsafe behaviors of employees.

Background and Objectives: Using appropriate methods for ergonomic risk assessment of musculoskeletal disorders has an important role in controlling these risks and providing workforce health. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of applying WERA method to assess the risk of musculoskeletal disorders through its correlation with the results of QEC. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 72 employees of workshop sections of a modern brick industry. Data were collected using a Nordic questionnaire to assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the past 12 months and WERA and QEC methods to ergonomic risk assessment of musculoskeletal disorders. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18. Results: The prevalence of back, shoulder, neck and wrist disorders were 41. 7%, 20. 8%, 16. 7% and 33. 3%, respectively. Results of WERA showed that 88. 9% of subjects had medium action level and 11. 1% had high action level. In QEC method, 6. 9% of subjects had exposure level ‘ one’ , 20. 8% of subjects had exposure level ‘ two’ , 48. 6% of subjects had exposure level ‘ three’ , and 23. 7% of subjects had exposure level ‘ four’ . The correlation between QEC total score and prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was (r=0. 67, P=0. 038). The correlation coefficient between the final scores of the two methods was (r=0. 53, P=0. 021). Conclusion: Examination of the correlation between the mean scores of the two methods indicated a moderate correlation between them. Correlation between prevalence of disorders and QEC and WERA scores showed that QEC results were more consistent with Nordic results and it can be said that QEC method was more suitable for ergonomic assessment of musculoskeletal disorders risk for different tasks in this study.

Background and Objectives: The employees of an industrial sector, especially the food industry, tackle many problems due to their type of job. Among these staff, non-standard working postures is known as a risk factor for musculoskeletal disorders. Musculoskeletal disorders affect the function and self-efficacy of these people and ultimately leads to a reduction in their performance. Therefore, in this case, research entitled: Study of risk factors of the ergonomic work environment and its relation with self-efficacy and job performance of employees of the food industry has been done. Methods: A total of 202 people were selected as the sample group using a random sampling method. Then they completed the research questionnaires. The research tools consisted of Paterson's job performance questionnaire, Scherer general self-efficacy, Key Indicator method and a five-point body map questionnaire for assessing body organs discomfort and prevalence. Data was analyzed using SPSS 19. Results: There was a significant difference between the level of risk of musculoskeletal disorders and their job performance and between the risk of musculoskeletal disorders and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. The lower back showed the highest prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. There was a significant difference between the levels of risk of musculoskeletal disorders with job performance and also between musculoskeletal disorders with job performance and self-efficacy. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between job performance and self-efficacy. Conclusion: The results indicated the role of self-efficacy in preventing behaviors that lead to exacerbation of musculoskeletal disorders. This will ultimately be reflected in their job performance and both the individual and the organization concerned. Also, employing high self-efficacy staff can improve work performance and productivity and contribute to better production processes.