Evaluation of biomechanical risk factor and relationship with disability of upper limbs in assembly workers of porcelain manufacturing company

Abstract

Introduction: Upper limbs are more susceptible to musculoskeletal disorders. The OCRA method is suggested to measure the biomechanical risk of the associated with the manual, repetitive work in upper limbs. Questionnaires can be used to measure the symptoms of diseases and disabilities. The DASH questionnaire is one of these questionnaires that are used to evaluate disability of upper limbs. In this study attempted to evaluate the biomechanical risk factor and relationship with disability of the upper limbs in assembly workers.

Method: The study was a descriptive – analytic and cross-sectional one being and was carried out among 120 female assembly workers. For the measurement of biomechanical risk factor and disability of the upper limbs, the OCRA method and Iranian version of DASH have been used, respectively. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS 20. It is noteworthy to mention that P value <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: In this study, assembly workers were in terms of risk factors of biomechanics and upper limb disability in low risk and low disability, respectively. In addition, the relationship between biomechanical risk factor and disability of upper limbs was significant and direct (P value <0.05).

Conclusion: Since the relationship between biomechanical risk factor and disability of upper limbs, was significant and direct, it can be concluded that musculoskeletal disorders due to inappropriate working conditions can lead to motor limitation and upper limb disability at different levels.