Investigation of the physical risk factor in wall plastering job using WERA method

• Main Authors: Abd. Rahman, M. N., Abdul Rani, Mat Rebi, Mohd. Rohani, Jafri
• Format: Book Section
• Published: Newswood Limited 2011
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/29261/; http://www.iaeng.org/publication/IMECS2011/IMECS2011_pp1302-1304.pdf
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

This aims of this study was to investigate the physical risk factor among the workers in wall plastering by using new development of the ergonomic risk assessment tool which called Workplace Ergonomic Risk Assessment (WERA). Home building industry in three workplaces were randomly selected as a field study in this research where out of 43 workers in the wall plastering job were randomly selected as a subjects. During the site visit of the three workplaces, observation of the tasks were carried out by using WERA assessment. A structured interview with self-report charts (Body Discomfort Chart) were given to all subjects for each tasks. An analysis of WERA assessment, the wrist score for WERA body part was >4 in 86% of workers, while wrist pain or discomfort was reported by 86%, yielding a significant association between WERA body part score and self-reported pain (? 2=16.12; p =0.000). The WERA body part score for the shoulder regions during wall plastering job yielded a score >4 in 93% and caused shoulder pain or discomfort in 91%, the association being significant (2 =12.58; p =0.000). The back regions for WERA body part score was >4 in 91% of workers, with 98% reporting pain or discomfort in the back regions, with a significant association (2 =9.98; p =0.002). The result shows that statistically significant for the wrist, shoulder and back regions of the individual WERA body part scores to the development of pain or discomfort. It shows that the WERA assessment provided a good indication of work related musculoskeletal disorders which might be reported as pain, ache or discomfort in the relevant body region.