BACKGROUND: A large number of different methods are available to identify and assess working postures. Although observation-based methods are most commonly used in practise, investigations showed different results regarding validity of such methods. OBJECTIVE: To investigate validity of one of the most commonly used observation-based assessment method in ergonomics, the Ovako Working Posture Analysing System (OWAS) and the European standard EN 1005-4 for evaluation of working postures, an experimental laboratory study was conducted. METHODS: Muscle activity was measured under combinations of static working postures of trunk inclination and shoulder flexion to compare these measurements and observation-based assessments according to OWAS and EN 1005-4. In order to investigate the magnitude of correspondence between muscle activity and observation-based assessments, Spearman rank correlation coefficients (r s ) were calculated. RESULTS: Significant correlations were found between OWAS and muscle activity (range from r s 2 = 0.17 r s 2 = 0.55). Significant correlations were found between EN 1005-4 and muscle activity (range from r s 2 = 0.34 to r s 2 = 0.74). CONCLUSIONS: Results emphasise a need for further developments of observation-based methods, since the two investigated methods showed a variance of validity ranging from small to large. Such improvements may also form a better basis for the ergonomic improvement of working conditions in practise, which is highly necessary due to a constantly high prevalence of MSDs in the last decades.
High levels of mental work stress have significant implications for employees and employers. Epidemiological studies consistently show links between high levels of work stress and self-reported mental and physical health problems, including depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, helping employees to cope with mental stress is becoming more and more important. The present study examines the mediating influence of mobile health (mHealth) technology use on the relationship between psychosocial workplace characteristics and employee well-being. The investigated sample consisted of 2946 employed working adults from four different countries (United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia) who used a mHealth application between 2019 and 2021. The results indicate a positive indirect relationship between psychosocial workplace characteristics, mHealth use, and employee well-being, suggesting that mHealth use can have a positive impact on employee well-being and help them cope with psychosocial demands at work. The results further suggest an influence of gender and age. In the long term, mHealth technologies may provide support in everyday work to help manage psychosocial demands.
The aging of the working population calls for innovative approaches to monitor and support the changes of physical, physiological and psycho-social capabilities of workers over time, as well as to promote habits aimed at improving both health and productivity. This paper presents the WorkingAge (Smart Working Environments for All Ages-WA) project, which focuses on innovative Human Computer Interaction methods (such as augmented and/or virtual reality or gesture/voice/noise recognition or gaze tracking) to improve the users' psychological/emotional/health state at workplaces. Based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and on data driven models of the users' characteristics and behaviors, the WA Tool will monitor the state of users to automatically provide a set of suggestions promoting healthy habits in their working environment as well as in their daily living activities. The paper presents general concepts at the basis of the WA project, its hardware-software sensor architecture, and the elements of the ontology capturing the key concepts of the data collected to profile the users.
BACKGROUND: Research demonstrates that work interruptions are considered one of the most common work stressors. Understanding the mechanisms of work interruptions is therefore vital to reducing worker stress and maintaining performance. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of the frequency of work interruptions on subjective workload in the context of office work. Specifically, the mediating influence of interruption perception as well as the moderating influence of the complexity of the primary task are examined. METHOD: Work interruptions of 492 office workers in Germany were collected by means of a one-day diary study. A mediation model and a conditional indirect effect model were calculated to examine the influence of interruption frequency on subjective workload, mediated by the individual perception of these interruptions as well as moderated by the complexity of the primary work tasks. RESULTS: The analyses indicated a significant mediation and moderation. This implies that, on the one hand, the perception of work interruptions significantly mediates the relationship between the frequency of work interruptions and subjective workload. On the other hand, more complex primary work tasks seem to strengthen the positive relationship between interruption frequency and perceived interruption overload. CONCLUSION: The study underlines that work interruptions need to be considered in a much more differentiated way than is currently the case. Both in research and in terms of intervention measures in the work context, the various influencing factors need to be identified for an assessment of the effects on the working person to be possible.
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