EFFECT OF PARTICIPATORY ERGONOMICS PROGRAM ON REDUCING ERGONOMIC RISK FACTORS AMONG THE AGING WORKERS ON GINGER PEELERS IN WAT PURANAWAS COMMUNITY, THAILAND

TL;DR

A participatory ergonomics program helped reduce ergonomic risks and improve work performance for aging ginger peelers in Thailand.

Contribution

Demonstrates the effectiveness of a participatory ergonomics program for aging workers in a specific manual labor context.

Findings

RULA and COPM scores improved after the PE program, showing reduced ergonomic risk and better performance.

Improvements were maintained during the 4-week follow-up period.

Work Ability Index scores did not show significant changes across the study periods.

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the effects of the participatory ergonomics (PE) program on reducing the ergonomic risk factors and increasing the work performance among the aging workers who work as ginger peelers in the Wat Puranawas community in Thailand.

Fourteen older workers who work in the Wat Puranawas community are recruited, by purposive sampling. Participants attend the PE program twice, each session lasts 60 min. The measuring instruments used are: the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), the Work Ability Index (WAI), and the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). The Friedman test is used for comparing the difference in the outcome from 3 periods, the pre-test period, the post-test period (at 2 weeks after implementing the PE program), and the follow-up period (at 4 weeks after the conclusion of the PE program). Wilcoxon signed-rank test was also performed.

The scores of the RULA and the scores of COPM in the domain of satisfaction and performance during ginger peeling are improved during the post-test and the follow-up period (p < 0.05) The scores of WAI show no statistical significance when comparing the 3 periods (p = 0.079).

The results indicate that the PE program can effectively reduce ergonomic risk factors and enhance the workability among aging workers who work as ginger peelers.

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