Work

Hand discomfort in production assembly workers.

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate subjective hand discomfort in female production assembly workers. Thirty-seven females, working as assembly workers, aged from 22 to 54 years (with mean ± SE age of 36.4 ± 10.4 years) participated in this study. The mean (± SE) height, body mass and body mass index of the subjects were 166.8 ± 4.2 cm, 61.04 ± 9.5 kg and 21.9 ± 3.7 kg (m 2 ) -1 , respectively and their general employment stage as manufacturing worker was 7.35 ± 5.5 years. Thirty-five workers were right-handed. In the chosen factory was implemented the Lean manufacturing production together with a number of ergonomically designed work places. For the most part of the workday assembly workers sit on a chair or stand behind their working desk, driving screws into an aluminium plate with a pneumatic screwdriver. Discomfort in six regions of the hand, both right and left, was subjectively estimated by the Cornell Hand Discomfort Questionnaire. Total discomfort score was calculated. The results indicated that the female assembly workers felt work-related discomfort the most in the right wrist (79.2%), left wrist (6.2%) and in the right thumb joint area (3.6%). Discomfort was less pronounced in the left pinkie and ring fingers (0.01%), left thumb (0.2%) and in the right thumb (0.7%). In conclusion, this study indicates significant feeling of discomfort in the right wrist. In order to avoid the problems caused by overload it is advisable to do special exercises during short brakes. According to the results further research is needed on the relationship between hand discomfort and the effect of exercise.

Source: Agronomy Research