Body@Work

 

PERIOD
2005-2011

 

FUNDING
TNO Quality of Life

Research Institute Move, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

 

INVESTIGATORS
T. Bosch, MSc 1, 2
Prof. Dr.

M.P. de Looze 1, 2, 3
Prof. Dr.

J.H. van Dieën 2,3
Dr. B. Visser 2, 3

 

1 TNO Quality of Life, Department of Design 4 Human Performance, Hoofddorp, The Netherlands
2 Body@Work, Research Center on Physical Activity, Work and Health, TNO-VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3 Research Institute Move, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

 

BACKGROUND

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders, in particularly neck and shoulder problems, put a large economic burden on the society. A number of trends that can be currently observed in the industrialized world may further increase the problem. In the production sector for instance, companies increasingly outsource segments of their production, including administrative tasks to sub-contractors, and rationalize the remaining core production towards a larger reliance on automation and information technology. Both of these actions lead to a lower load intensity, a more narrow assortment of tasks within the company, and to less exposure diversity between the remaining tasks. An additional trend in industry as well as in the service sector points to an increasing implementation of tayloristic production principles with a strong focus on avoiding time losses. This suggests that jobs will show less opportunities for variation and recovery through discretionary breaks, and a larger occurrence of short-cycle, repeated operations of low intensity. These developments may well contribute to an increase in incidence rates of neck and shoulder problems.

Today, there is a clear challenge to increase the worker’s productivity without negative health effects on workers. For the design of optimal production processes it is essential to know about the effect on performance and health of different temporal loading patterns

 

This project aims to increase our understanding of the development of muscle fatigue in the neck and shoulder musculature as a potential initiator of muscle disorders and pain in low-intensity work (e.g. light assembly or office work). In low intensity work, the duration of the work as well as other time aspects rather than the load intensity seem to be crucial, both in terms of pathogenesis and prevention. Therefore, the specific focus in this project is on the effects of different temporal loading patterns over longer periods of time (3-8 hrs).

 

OBJECTIVES

The scientific objectives of the project are:

- An improved understanding of the temporal development of muscle fatigue in the neck and shoulder region during low-intensity work.

- An improved understanding of the effects of  temporal loading patterns (in combination with load intensity)on the development of muscle fatigue.

- An improved understanding of the relationship between the objective estimates of fatigue and the subjective feelings of local discomfort during low-intensity work

- An improved understanding of the development of muscle fatigue and local discomfort during real-life manual assembly work and the potential of fatigue-limiting measures in this context

 

METHOD

The proposed research questions are studied in experimental designs situated both in the work place and in the laboratory. We favor lab studies for the obvious reasons of being able to apply relatively complex measurements and having control over all potential factors of influence. Meanwhile, we would like to keep grip on the practical relevance of all our findings throughout the project and therefore field experiments will be performed additionally. The field experiments will serve to specify research questions and to design lab experiments as relevant as possible. Otherwise, laboratory findings and methodologies may be tested and validated in the field experiments.

In all experiments, the development of fatigue over time as deduced from objective measures (e.g. EMG parameters) and subjectively experienced discomfort during low-intensity work will be studied. In all studies, a repeated measurements design will be applied, where subjects are exposed to various conditions varying in some temporal aspect or load intensity.  The field experiments will take place in real-life production lines in Dutch companies, where workers are exposed to low-intensity work

 

RESULTS

 

Some of the results up till now:

- Exploration of new measurement methods (e.g. MMG, multi-electrode EMG) to detect muscle fatigue in laboratory and field studies

- Understanding of the relationship between perceived fatigue and objective indicators of muscle fatigue

- Understanding of the effect of work pace on movement strategy, muscle fatigue and performance

 

PUBLICATIONS

Bosch T, De Looze MP, Van Dieën JH. Development of fatigue and discomfort in the upper trapezius muscle during light manual work. Ergonomics 2007;50:161-177

 

Bosch T, De Looze MP, Kingma I, Visser B, Van Dieën JH. Electromyographic manifestations of muscle fatigue during three different levels of simulated light manual assembly work. J Electromyography and Kinesiology 2009;19:e246-e256

 

De Looze MP, Bosch T, Van Dieën JH. Manifestations of muscle fatigue in low-force muscle contractions. A review. Ergonomics 2009;52:428-437

 

Bosch T, Visser B, Mathiassen SE, de Looze, MP, van Dieën JH. The effect of work pace on workload, motor variability and fatigue during simulated low intensity assembly work. Submitted.

 

MORE INFORMATION / MEER INFORMATIE:
Tim Bosch
e-mail: Tim.Bosch@tno.nl
tel: +31 23 55 49 439