Affiliations: [a] ALGORITMI Research Centre, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal
| [b] MIT-Portugal Program, CMEMS-UMinho, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Ana Colim, University of Minho, DPS, School of Engineering, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal. Tel.: +351 253 510 341; E-mail: ana.colim@dps.uminho.pt.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Obesity prevalence in the workforce is clearly increasing. Simultaneously, manual lifting/lowering loads, referred to as Vertical Handling Tasks (VHT) in this paper, are common in industries and services. Performing VHT exposes workers to physical overload, which can be measured using a psychophysical approach. Various risk factors can increase this overload, including individual factors such as workers’ Body Mass Index (BMI). OBJECTIVE:To study the possible effects of workers’ BMI and some task conditions on physical overload during VHT. METHODS:Psychophysical data were collected from 51 participants having different body constitutions (including non-obese, overweight and obese). The participants performed 6 VHT (3 different loads ×2 workstation configurations), during which they lifted and lowered a test-box between their knees and shoulders. For each task, they reported their perceived exertion using the Borg Category Ratio-10 (CR-10) scale. RESULTS:The results showed that the CR-10 scale is sensitive to the variation of the task conditions tested. However, the psychophysical data pointed to a tendency to decrease the perception of physical overload as workers’ BMI increases. CONCLUSIONS:This may compromise the validity of the application of psychophysical data as an ergonomic approach for Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WRMSD) prevention in obese workers.
Keywords: Lifting and lowering, obesity, psychophysical approach, Borg CR-10 scale
