• 한국안전학회지
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• 제26권5호
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• pp.89-98
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• 2011

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) have become a hot issue in the Korean workplace for the past several years. So many manufacturing companies have tried to improve the work environments for the control and the prevention of the WMSDs. This study investigates the relation between WMSDs and job stress from 965 workers in a shipbuilding company by questionnaire analysis. The seven job stress factors which are job autonomy, job insecurity, organizational system, workplace culture, unfair compensation, relationship conflict, and job requirement were analyzed. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders symptoms were 12.9%. The analysis showed that job stress by job autonomy was higher than that by job stress factor. WMSDs were associated with job requirement, organizational system, unfair compensation and workplace culture. The results could be used to design the management program for the reduction of job stress.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제30권4호
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• pp.465-472
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• 2011

Objective: The aim of this paper is to introduce ergonomic evaluation methods for agricultural work. Background: Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders(WMSDs) became a major problem in agriculture industry recently. A number of ergonomics evaluation methods have been developed in order to evaluate the work load for preventing WMSDs. The workload evaluation methods were developed for manufacturing industry. Therefore, these ergonomic evaluation methods were used carefully in agriculture industry because work type in agriculture different from work type in manufacturing. Method: Various references of ergonomic evaluation methods such as OWAS, REBA, RULA, NLE and Snook table have been reviewed for agricultural work. Results: This paper presents the characteristics, the selection and application procedure of ergonomic evaluation methods for agricultural work. Application: These results can be used to provide baseline information for ergonomic evaluation methods.

• 대한물리치료과학회지
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.163-172
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• 2003

Background and Purpose. Physical therapists are at risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). Little understand the characteristics of work in physical therapist or the effort they take to prevent injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of work in physical therapist and the efforts for prevent injury Subjects. Standardized questionnaire was administered to 103 physical therapist in Pusan association. Methods. An questionnaire was given to each subject. Questions investigated the characteristics of work in physical therapist, efforts and caring of injury prevention. Chi-square Test used to assess the association of general characteristics with the characteristics of work in physical therapist. AVONA and T-test used to assess the association of efforts of prevent injury in independent variable Results. Physical therapist was reported a higher prevalence of WMSDs in most body areas. These attributes sometimes resulted in behaviors that contributed to the development of their WMSDs.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.15-25
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• 2003

Recent studies indicate potential links between various psychosocial factors and work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). In this research, the effects of job stressors on the WMSDs symptoms were investigated using questionnaire in the largest automotive company in Korea. It was found that perception of workload, over time and shift work, and working using powered hand tools were significant factors for the symptoms of WMSDs, along with smoking habit, periodic exercise, and interpersonal relationship. Practical applications of this research include practitioners taking into account psychosocial work factors and job stress in their efforts to reduce and control WMSDs.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.513-519
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• 2010

Since 2003 when the prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) became a responsibility of management in workplaces, the effectiveness of the Korean WMSDs law has been concern for many stakeholders of this measure including workers, workers' union, researchers, professionals, and managers as well as officials in governments. WMSDs are known to be resulted from overburden on workers' body due to tasks required at their workplaces. Korean government enacted a law to require management of companies to take measures to prevent musculoskeletal disorders at work. The objectives of this paper is to review activities and actions taken to comply with this WMSDs law and problems encountered in last 7 years since the law came intoforce and suggest resolutions for problems so that this law can contribute to fulfill the real purpose of the law and make better workplaces in Korea.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.37-41
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• 2005

Work related musculoskeletal disorders became a hot issue in Korea since many workers reported musculoskeletal disorder problems. Korean government enacted a law to require companies to take measures to prevent musculoskeletal disorders at work. This study found workers' WMSDs symptoms in squatting work posture which the rate of the occurrence was relatively high among work types to bring about WMSDs in railroad cars maintenance works and analyzed to compare the hazardous jobs in the industrial safety health law in South Korea with the caution jobs in Washington State in U.S. The hazardous jobs in South Korea were more effective in squatting work posture from this study result and this study data will be a great help to plan and carry out an effective prevention program about WMSDs.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.81-86
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• 2016

The WMSDs are known to occur more in upper extremity than lower extremity, and such a ratio is increasing each year. The motions or repeated work requiring excessive strength beyond worker's maximum grip strength were known as a major cause of the WMSDs in upper extremity. To prevent the WMSDs in upper extremity, research on the grip strength characteristics analysis of field workers that can be used as basic data for work design and manual tool design is needed. The purpose of this study is to identify various variables affecting grip strength and is to find out the impacts of grip strength on WMSDs. This research measured the grip strength of 327 field workers at Heavy Industries, and also conducted a questionnaire survey on individual characteristics and job characteristics. As a result of analyzing grip strength, the grip strength was statistically significant (P<0.1) according to the body surface area (BSA) of the research subjects. The differences between percentile groups of grip strength were statistically significant (P<0.1) according to pain levels of hand/wrist/finger and arm/elbow. The comparison results between the average grip strength of Korean adult males and the average grip strength of the survey-targeted heavy industry workers show that the average grip strength of the heavy industry workers was higher by 9.75 kg. This study analyzed relationship between grip strength and the pain levels of hand/wrist/finger and arm/elbow, and compared the findings in this study with those of existing preceding studies. Also, this research comparatively analyzed the grip strength of Korean adult males and survey-targeted heavy industry workers. The findings of this study can be used as useful data for ergonomic work design and manual tool design to prevent WMSDs at industrial worksites, given that almost no data on the grip strength of workers in the industrial sites are found in Korea.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제35권3호
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• pp.125-133
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• 2016

Objective: The aim of this study is to figure out the level of Functional Movement Screen (FMS) of 122 automobile manufacturing workers and to set the FMS score for predicting risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Background: Although today's industrial sites have been becoming automated rapidly, the risks of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) have been on the rise. In the case of WMSDs, it is important to control WMSDs at the early stage. Early detection of WMSDs is very important for the successful treatment. However, the medical examination puts a great financial burden on most workers. To reduce their burden, there is one test to check the musculoskeletal functional condition and to predict the risk of injury, which is called FMS. Method: This research tested the FMS score of 122 workers at a motor company, and also conducted a questionnaire survey of individual characteristics and job characteristics. Results: For the 122 subjects, the average score of FMS is $14.63{\pm}2.27$. There is a negative correlation between FMS and their ages and BMI (p <0.05). FMS is higher when exercising regularly (p <0.05). The FMS scores of musculoskeletal disorder patients are lower than those of normal workers (p <0.05). While it is more likely to become a musculoskeletal disorder patient when FMS score is less than 14, it is more likely to become a normal worker when FMS score is more than or equal to 14. Conclusion: According to the result of FMS test, there is a score difference between individuals with musculoskeletal disorders and normal ones. FMS scores can also predict and identify workers with risk of the musculoskeletal disorders. Application: According to this study, FMS can be expected to have a positive effect on the prevention of WMSDs in worksites.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.51-63
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• 2009

In the field of ergonomics, it is evident that participatory action research methodology could contribute to reduce risk factors of work related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a participatory ergonomics in reducing the incidence rate and severity of WMSDs in the tire manufacturing company. In this study, an action committee comprising 13 members was organized in the tire manufacturing company. The action group participated at every research process, education and training, assessment and intervention of risk factors, and early detection and management of WMSDs during the 3 years(2004-2006). The prevention programs contributed to an overall reduction in incidence rate by approximately 37.2%, and lost workdays and workers' compensation costs by approximately 55.1%. But, the incidence rate increased 29.0%, and compensation costs increased 59.0% in the first-year setting programs, and both the incidence rate and compensation costs decreased after the second-year managing programs. And, the reduction rates(63.2%) of insurance cases is higher than that(9.7%) of non-insurance cases. The results showed that participatory ergonomics programs may be effective in reducing the incidence and severity rate of WMSDs.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.51-56
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• 2008

In these days, work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) is one of the issues in the shipbuilding industry. As the number of injured workers and demands for worker's compensation have rapidly increased, improvement of work conditions and environments to prevent WMSDs has been more demanded. To reduce WMSDs' hazards in the shipbuilding industry, simulation technique which showed it's ability of increasing the manufacturing productivity was applied, because simulation technique has the evaluation ability for a worker's danger level of production process by RULA(Rapid Upper Limb Assesment). In this research, worker's altitude had modeled and worker's action has simulated. After the caution level was evaluated, we pointed out clues which had high workload. To reduce work-load, we applied ergonomic principles for improving working conditions and environments. Improved working conditions and environments were simulated using human modelling and simulation and their workload were evaluated again.