Evaluation of two posture survey instruments for assessing computing postures among college students

Issue title: Children and Ergonomics, Part 2

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Chaumont Menéndez, Cammie | Amick III, Benjamin C.^; | (Joe) Chang, Che-Hsu | Harrist, Ronald B. | Jenkins, Mark | Robertson, Michelle | Janowitz, Ira | Rempel, David M. | Katz, Jeffrey N. | Dennerlein, Jack T.

Affiliations: The University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX, USA | The Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Canada | Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA, USA | Rice University, TX, USA | Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA | Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, CA, USA | Orthopaedic and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Note: [] Address for correspondence: Cammie Chaumont Menéndez, 1095 Willowdale Road, MS-1811, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA. Tel.: +1 304 285 6233; Fax: +1 304 285 6235; E-mail: CMenendez@cdc.gov

Abstract: Objective: To determine agreement between two posture assessment survey instruments and which, if any, were correlated with experiencing upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms. Methods: Thirty undergraduate participants had three postural assessment surveys completed, one each for three separate 7-day data collection periods during a semester. Two observation assessment tools were used, a modified Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (mRULA) for computer users for the right and left limbs and the University of California Computer Use Checklist. Concurrently, upper extremity musculoskeletal symptom experience paired to each postural assessment was measured. Lin's concordance correlation coefficient evaluated survey agreement and multi-level statistical models described associations between survey responses and symptoms. Results: There was no agreement between the two postural assessment tool scores (p> 0.85). In adjusted models, the UC Computer Use Checklist was positively associated with symptoms occurrence (OR=1.4, 90% CI 1.2–1.6 for any symptoms; OR=1.3, 90% CI 1.0–1.6 for moderate or greater symptoms). Associations with mRULA scores were inconsistent in that they were sometimes protective and sometimes indicators of risk, depending on the covariates included in the models. Conclusion: The mRULA for computer users and the UC Computer Use Checklist were independent of each other; however, due to the inconsistent associations with symptoms we cannot conclude one instrument is superior to the other. Our data do suggest the UC Computer Use Checklist demonstrates a traditional relationship with symptoms, where increasing scores signifiy greater risk. We observed a nontraditional relatioship with symptoms for the mRULA for computer users that needs to be further examined. This is a pilot study and, thus, findings should be interpreted as exploratory. Associations observed in the current study will be used to test hypotheses in the cohort study recently conducted.

Keywords: Computer use, musculoskeletal symptoms, posture, college student

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-2009-0942

Journal: Work, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 421-430, 2009