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Developing a framework for assessing muscle effort and postures during computer work in the field: the effect of computer activities on neck/shoulder muscle effort and postures

Issue title: IEA 2012: 18th World congress on Ergonomics - Designing a sustainable future

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bruno Garza, J.L. | Eijckelhof, B.H.W.; | Johnson, P.W. | Raina, S.M. | Rynell, P. | Huysmans, M.A.; | van Dieën, J.H.; | van der Beek, A.J.; | Blatter, B.M.; | Dennerlein, J.T.;

Affiliations: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA | Department of Public and Occupational Health and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Body@Work Research Center on Physical Activity, Work and Health, TNO-VU/VUmc, Van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Research Institute MOVE, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, Van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, TNO, Polarisavenue 151, 2132 JJ, Hoofddorp, The Netherlands | fDepartment of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Box 357234, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA | Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115 U.S.A.

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: jax@hsph.harvard.edu.

Keywords: office work, exposure assessment, upper extremity, task, trapezius

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-2012-0468-2377

Journal: Work, vol. 41, no. Supplement 1, pp. 2377-2380, 2012

Published: 2012
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Abstract

The present study, a part of the PROOF (PRedicting Occupational biomechanics in OFfice workers) study, aimed to determine whether trapezius muscle effort was different across computer activities in a field study of computer workers, and also investigated whether head and shoulder postures were different across computer activities. One hundred twenty participants were measured continuously for two hours each while performing their own computer work. Keyboard activities were associated with the highest intensity of left and right trapezius muscle efforts, and mouse activities were associated with the smallest variability in left and right trapezius muscle efforts. Corresponding trends in head and shoulder postures included that the greatest head flexion and left and right shoulder internal rotation was observed during keyboard activities, and that the smallest variability in head flexion, head lateral tilt, and right shoulder internal rotation was observed during mouse activities. Identifying which muscle efforts and postures are different across computer activities is the first essential step for developing prediction rules for muscle efforts and postures, which can be used to link muscle efforts and postures to musculoskeletal symptoms in epidemiological studies.

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