Iranian Journal of Ergonomics

Effect of COVID-19 virus on Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders of Faculty Members of Yazd University

AbbasAli Jafari-Nodoushan

Background and Objective: Faculty Members of the university have a fundamental role in education and its quality. Working conditions of the faculty members have made them face severe musculoskeletal disorders. The spread of the COVID-19 virus, the closure of universities and the virtual education have made working conditions of the faculty members more difficult than before. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of the virus on the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders of the faculty members of the university and the extraction of variables affecting the disorders.
Methods: This descriptive-survey study was conducted in 2020 on 220 faculty members of Yazd University who were selected by the simple random sampling method. Data were collected using the standardized Nordic questionnaire in two stages before and after the spread of the virus and were analyzed in SPSS 25 by paired sample t-test, independent t-test, and analysis of variance.
Results: Musculoskeletal disorders after the spread of the virus in most organs have increased significantly, so that frequency percentage in the neck for the three campuses has increased from 36%, 40%, and 31% to 55%, 52%, and 44 %. There is a significant relationship between gender, work experience, and teaching method with the prevalence of disorders. Most disorders were in the back, neck, and knees.
Conclusion: A small percentage of faculty members perform sports activities and daily exercises that by planning on them can reduce the disorders. The university can also prevent the centralization of education at a specific time by dividing the virtual education during the day and week and reduce the disorders.

The Exploration of the Organizational Justice Level and Its Relation with Cyberloafing with a Study in the Healthcare and Treatment Network

Hossein Samadi-Miarkolaei

Background and Aim: Nowadays, the healthcare and treatment sector's organizations are known as one of the most important pillars in the debate of public health. On the other, the psychological development of the experienced, knowledge-driven, competent, proactive and motivated, and empowered human resource taken into account as the most important competitive advantage for these organizations. Considering the importance of human resources, the present research tries to explore the employees' psychological perception of organizational justice and its impacts on the cyber loafing in the Babolsar healthcare and treatment network.
Methods: Present research, in terms of purpose, is an applied study, and in terms of method, is an analytical-correlation study. Considering the simple random sampling method and on the basis of Cochran's Formula, 165 employees of Babolsar healthcare and treatment network in 1397 [2018] are studied. For gathering data, two standard scales for cyber loafing and organizational justice are used. In data analysis also Pearson's correlation and Structural Equation Modeling has been done by SPSS and LISREL softwares.
Results: Research results showed that there is a negative and significant relation between organizational justice and cyber loafing (P<0.001, r = -0.299). The results of structural equation modeling also showed that organizational justice variable explains the 47 percent of variance for cyber loafing variable. The values of goodness of fit indices for research model are (χ2/df=1.44; GFI=0.98; NFI=0.98; RMSEA=0.054) that showed desirable fitness of model.
Conclusion: Considering results of this research, it could be understood that the cyber loafing is increasingly impressed by organizational justice and its components, and in this regard, the employees are more vulnerable. Therefore, it is suggested to the managers to develop the organizational procedures and the methods of justice establishment in organization, and eventually, to apply the capacities of their human resource in the best way possible.

The Effect of Organizational Change on Mental Health, by Examining the Moderator Role of Support and Job Control

Mahdi Rezaeetale

Background and Aim: The present study seeks to explain the effect of organizational change on employees' mental health with respect to the moderating role of job support and control.
Method: This method is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of the study was the staff of Farshchian Sina Hospital in Hamadan, a total number of 200 people. Sample size was determined based on Morgan table to be 132 people which were randomly selected. Standard questionnaires of organizational change, general health, job support and job control were used to measure the variables. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 23 and smart SPLS version 2.
Results: Findings indicate that 43% of employees' mental health changes are explained by organizational change. Organizational change, considering the moderating effect of job support, has a positive effect on employees' mental health. The standardized coefficient between the two variables shows that 24% of mental health changes are explained by organizational change, taking into account the adjustment effect of job support. Organizational change, considering the moderating effect of job control, also has a positive effect on the mental health of employees. The standardized coefficient between the two variables also shows that 29% of mental health changes are explained by organizational change by considering the moderating effect of job control. Therefore, organizational change has a positive effect on the mental health of Farshchian Hospital staff in Hamadan.
Conclusion: The results of the research indicate that making organizational changes in Farshchian Hospital in Hamadan, considering the supportive role and control of managers, improves the mental health of employees.

Muscle Moment and Angle of Hip, Knee and Ankle Joints in a Seven- Link Model of Backpack Sprayer Operator

Ali Maleki

Background and Aim: Carriage of backpack sprayers is an inevitable part of agricultural operations that increases the risk of injury along with undesirable changes in walking mechanics. The purpose of this study is to formulate the muscle moment changes in the hip, knee and ankle for the backpack sprayer operator body.
Methods: In this study, a seven-link sprayer operator model is designed and the moment changes in the hip, knee and ankle joints are evaluated. Data are obtained using Plot-digitizer software. Excel software is used to fit the third degree curve on the data.
Results: In the hip joint, the moment is reduced by changing the angle from zero to 15°. At the end of the swing phase, the moment applied to the hip joint increases with increasing the angle up to 30°. In the beginning of the swing phase, the knee joint starts to open at -55°. At the end of the swing phase, the knee joint releases up to -5 ° and the moment applied to the knee joint increases slowly. The moment applied to the ankle joint increases by changing the ankle angle from -7.5° to 7.5°.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, amount of moment changes of hip, knee and ankle joint affect the force applied to the backpack sprayer operator body. With the knowledge of the moment changes of joints, practical solutions can be provided to reduce amount of damage to these joints.

Investigating the Relationship Between the Risk of Psychosocial Factors and Grip Fatigue of Employees with Manual Tasks

Rashid Haidari Moghadam

Backgrond and Aim: Fatigue is a common and highly prevalent problem among workers. Muscle fatigue is the result of general fatigue that is caused by different risk factors. This research was conducted to assess grip fatigue between workers with manual tasks and its relationship to psychosocial risk factors.
Methods: In this study, Jamar hydraulic dynamometer was used to investigate the decrease in the production of grip force or grip fatigue. The grip force of 157 subjects in three job levels that met inclusion criteria recorded, three times in an 8 hours shift. The psychosocial risk factors were also assessed using the Copenhagen psychosocial questionnaire and their relationship with grip force and grip fatigue was analyzed.
Results: sixty-one percent, 62%, and 69% of employees in light, medium, and heavy tasks, respectively, experienced grip fatigue in the second phase of the study. It seems that as the power/speed increased and the tasks became more difficult, employees experienced more grip fatigue in the right hand. The declining trend of grip force and the increase in grip fatigue was more evident in heavy task jobs. No moderate or strong correlation was observed between the psychosocial risk factors and grip fatigue.
Conclusion: Because the nature of worker tasks in heavy manual tasks required more force exertion, they experienced more grip fatigue in their right hand than other workers. It is not possible to draw definitive conclusions about the impact of psychosocial risk factors on grip fatigue. Investigating the impact of cognitive loads and anthropometric dimensions on grip fatigue can be an interesting topic for future studies.

Comparison of Marital Satisfaction, Intimacy and Sexual Function in Female Nurses with Fixed and Changing Shiftwork

Noori Kaabomeir

Background and Aim: One of the major challenges in the health sector, especially in relation to nurses, is shiftwork that can have many negative consequences for this group. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to comparison of marital satisfaction, intimacy and sexual function in female married nurses with fixed and changing shiftwork in Abadan city government hospitals.
Methods: The research method is a descriptive comparative design. The statistical population of the study consisted of all the female married nurses of Abadan city government hospitals, which was about 400 people. From this, 140 people were selected by simple random sampling method, of which 57 people had fixed shiftwork and 83 people had changing shiftwork. The instruments of the present study included Hudson’ Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire, Vaker and Thompson’ Intimacy Questionnaire, and Rosen et al’ Sexual Function Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using MANOVA analysis and SPSS software version 24.
Results: The results of data analysis showed that there is no significant difference in marital satisfaction (F=0.29, P=0.589), intimacy (F=0.13, P=0.724) and sexual function (F=0.07, P=0.795) between female married nurses with fixed and changing shiftwork.
Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, it seems that there are mechanisms that moderate the effect of shiftwork on different outcomes. Therefore, it is necessary to provide the conditions for strengthening these mechanisms.

Designing Ergonomic Furniture Based on Students Anthropometry Attributes; College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran

Payam Moradpour

Background and Aim: A well-designed desk and chair, in addition to proper learning, can prevent changes in the user's physical form. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the anthropometric characteristics of students in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources located at the University of Tehran to design an ergonomic table and chair.
Methods: In this research, 18 anthropometric characteristics including the popliteal height, knee height, shoulder height, eye height, sitting height, elbow support height, elbow height, knotted elbow length, hip-popliteal length, hip-knee length, thigh thickness, abdominal depth, chest depth, hip width, shoulder width, the transverse width of the elbows, height, and as well as weight for 260 students (130 girls and 130 boys) aged 18 to 35 years were investigated. To collect data, an anthropometric chamber and chair were used. Finally, according to the measured physical dimensions of the students, the Dimensions of ergonomic table and chair were calculated and designed according to the INSO 9697-1 standard.
Results: Anthropometric dimensions of students were obtained through mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, mean, and the percentile value of 2.5 to 97.5 using SPSS version 20 software. The results showed that the age of the user does not have a significant effect on the size of the table and the chair. Also, the results showed that there was a significant difference in popliteal height between girls and boys.
Conclusions: Considering the difference in dimensions between female and male students, it was found that the popliteal height in the percentile of 5 for boys is 4 cm more than girls. Therefore, using measured anthropometric characteristics, the dimensions of the chair and table ergonomics were designed in two sizes.

Ergonomic Evaluation of Workstations in Industry with Emphasis on Economic Considerations (Case Study: Automotive Industry)

Mohammad Zolfaghari

Background and Aim: Annually, a percentage of the profits from the sale of goods and services by producers are spent on costs of musculoskeletal disorders due to non-compliance with ergonomic conditions. These costs are not favorable for organizations and employees and in most cases, ergonomic risk factors affect the quality of life of employees.
Methods: The present field study was conducted as a census on 193 workers with medical records in one of the domestic automotive industries on December 2018. The highest prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders belonged to 16 workers, so their workstations were analyzed. Questionnaire with the help of Nordic questionnaire and through interviews with workers has been one of the methods of collecting data. Each of the selected workstations was analyzed with OWAS method after job photography and video recording.
Results: The results showed that three work stations from the viewpoint of Action Categories are at the level of three, three work stations at the level of two and one station at the level of one, and then the costs of incidence and treatment and related actions due to establishing ergonomic conditions were calculated.
Conclusion: Cost of workstations analysis, Preventive actions and also designing a process to reduce the musculoskeletal abnormalities of the staff, which results in ergonomic conditions, compared with the cost of incidence and treatment of musculoskeletal complications is cost-effective for this automotive industry.