Iranian Journal of Ergonomics

Comparison of Common Mechanisms in the Design of Hip Belts in Backpacks on the Coordination between Trunk and Hip Segments during Walking

Abbas Farjad Pezeshk

Objectives: Using a backpack with a hip belt limits hip movements and prevents disruption in hip and trunk coordination. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the effect of common mechanisms in the design of hip belts in mountaineering backpacks on the coordination between trunk and pelvis organs during walking.
Methods: This semi-experimental research was conducted on 16 men. Three types of backpacks with different hip belts were used. Participants carried backpacks with a load of 13 kg. The continuous relative phase and its variability were used to analyze the coordination. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation and analysis of variance with repeated measures were used to compare variables in four conditions.
Results: According to the results, there was a difference between the level of coordination in two conditions of without a backpack and a normal backpack, with the normal backpack showing a significant decrease in coordination (P<0.05). The results also indicated that the variability in coordination increased after using backpacks with movable hip belts and cross frames compared to walking without a backpack (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Based on the existing findings, backpacks with a cross-movable frame maintain the antiphase coordination between the trunk and pelvis by allowing freedom of movement in these two organs. It also creates more flexibility by increasing variability in coordination.

Cultural Intelligence: Unveiling the Mediating Role of Social Responsibility in the Relationship between Spiritual Leadership and Social Identity among University Managers

Madineh Mahmoodi

Objectives: In contemporary times, educational institutions are instrumental in the development of societies, and universities in every country, along with their leaders, play a significant role in this domain. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the effect of spiritual leadership characteristics and social identity on cultural intelligence with an emphasis on the mediating role of social responsibility among the managers of Urmia University.
Methods: The research method was descriptive. The entire population of Urmia University managers (151 individuals) was included as the sample, given the limited population size. The data collection tools included the Cultural Intelligence Questionnaire (Early & Ang, 2004), Carroll's Social Responsibility Questionnaire (1991), Fry's spiritual leadership characteristics (2005), and Jenkins' social identity (1996). The validity of the instruments was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis and their reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The data were analyzed in SPSS (version 28) and LISREL (version 8.1) software packages using descriptive and inferential statistics (structural equation modeling).
Results: The research findings pointed to the significant positive impact of spiritual leadership characteristics on the cultural intelligence of Urmia University administrators. In addition, social identity had a meaningful positive effect on the cultural intelligence of these managers. Spiritual leadership characteristics also exerted a significant positive effect on the social responsibility of Urmia University administrators, as does social identity. Furthermore, social responsibility has a significant positive impact on the cultural intelligence of university managers. Notably, spiritual leadership characteristics, mediated by social responsibility, affected the cultural intelligence of Urmia University administrators. In a similar vein, social identity, through the mediation of social responsibility, affected the cultural intelligence of these managers.
Conclusion: The enhancement of spiritual leadership traits and social identity of Urmia University administrators, which in turn influence their cultural intelligence, can make it possible to improve the performance of the university. Furthermore, this enhancement is expected to increase employees' accountability.

Evaluation of Musculoskeletal Complaints among Medical Students: An Outcome Related to the Expansion of Virtual Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Aram Tirgar

Objectives: Considering that working with virtual education equipment increased significantly during the COVID-19 era, the purpose of this research was to investigate the association of complaints of musculoskeletal disorders with the use of electronic equipment during virtual education.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on a group of students in the first four years at Babol University of Medical Sciences, whose courses were mostly presented virtually. Data collection tools included a demographic information form and the standard Nordic questionnaire. Data were analyzed in SPSS22 software using descriptive and inferential statistical indicators, including the Chi-square statistical test. The significance level was considered at 0.05.
Results: The data obtained from 318 medical sciences students showed that 83.6% of them complained of pain in the musculoskeletal system during the past year. More than 21% of the participants had to take medicine, 19.9% needed to visit a doctor, and 4.1% had to use physiotherapy services. The results also showed there was a direct and statistically significant correlation between the frequency of complaints regarding musculoskeletal pain and discomfort in the past week and year and the level of use of virtual teaching devices (P≤0.001).
Conclusion: The expansion of virtual education in universities and the prolonged and continuous use of electronic educational equipment can be effective in increasing the frequency of complaints of musculoskeletal disorders among medical sciences students. Moreover, the lack of regular physical activity, smoking, high levels of stress, insomnia, and fatigue among medical students were also known as other effective factors.

Investigating the Cognitive Abilities of Nurses after Working in Infectious Disease Departments in Hospitals

Niloofar Chinisaz

Objectives: High workload, shift work, risk of disease, and mental workload caused by the possibility of transmission can create challenging and stressful situations for nurses. The present study aimed to assess the cognitive performance of nurses before and after working in COVID-19 wards to understand the potential effects.
Methods: A total of 250 nurses from hospitals in Ahvaz in 2020 who had more than two years of work experience and had not worked in departments in direct contact with COVID-19 patients were included in the study. The participants were asked to complete the cognitive ability assessment questionnaire before starting to work in COVID-19 departments and after two months of their work. The results before and after working in COVID-19 wards were compared using paired t-tests.
Results: The cognitive ability score after working in COVID-19 wards decreased significantly (mean difference±standard deviation: 23.92±12.00; P<0.001). The scores of all cognitive ability subscales except social cognition (mean difference±standard deviation: 3.03±2.43; P< 0.001) also decreased after working in COVID-19 wards.
Conclusion: Working in COVID-19 wards leads to a marked decrease in cognitive abilities of nurses. Given that the weakening of nurses' cognitive ability has a significant role in the quality of patient care measures, it is necessary to prioritize measures to improve their working conditions in order to improve cognitive abilities.

Investigating the Relationship between Visual Aesthetics of Content Creation pages and User Engagement in Selected Social Media

Mahnaz Saremi

Objectives: User engagement with digital technologies refers to the sense of belonging and individual satisfaction. Visual aesthetics, characterized by simplicity and diversity, plays a crucial role in the design of products and online sales strategies. This study investigates the relationship between visual aesthetics and user engagement with in a selected social network.
Methods: This correlational descriptive-analytical study examines the attractiveness of two pages with similar educational content but differing visual aesthetics criteria on one of the social networks. The first page (Researcher-made page) exhibits higher standards of attractiveness compared to the second page (Basic page). Data were collected through online questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS software.
Results: The study involved 116 participants, of whom 91 (78.4%) were female, with an average age of 26.8 ± 2.54 years. The majority of participants held a bachelor's degree (57.8%). The average visual aesthetics scores for the content pages (Researcher-made page) and (Basic page) were 95/92 and 84/9, respectively, indicating that Researcher-made page had greater visual appeal. Furthermore, the user engagement scores for Researcher-made page and Basic page were 107/9 and 100/02, respectively. A significant positive correlation was found between visual appeal and user engagement on both pages (P<0.001), while no significant relationship was observed between gender or education level and these metrics (P>0.05).
Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the visual aesthetics of virtual content pages has a significant impact on user engagement. These findings underscore the importance of adhering to attractiveness criteria in content design, which can be beneficial for content creators, managers, and business owners.

Understanding the Link between Leader-Member Exchange and Organizational Presenteeism: Analysis of the Key Role of Organizational Commitment in Academic Environments

Mohsen Nazarzadeh Zare

Objectives: The emergence of presenteeism in the organizational environment can have significant negative consequences. A key point in this regard is that the quality of leader-member exchange can influence the increase or decrease of presenteeism. Additionally, organizational commitment has a significant relationship with presenteeism. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze the relationship between leader-member exchange and organizational presenteeism among university employees through the mediating role of organizational commitment.
Methods: This descriptive-correlational method was conducted using the structural equation modeling technique. The research population consisted of all 145 male and female employees of Malayer University, and due to their small number, a census method was used to select the samples. The required data were collected using three questionnaires, namely Leader-Member Exchange, Organizational Presenteeism, and Organizational Commitment. The gathered data were analyzed in SPSS version 23 and SMART PLS version 3 software packages using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.
Results: The research findings showed that leader-member exchange had a significant negative path coefficient (-0.271) on organizational presenteeism, leader-member exchange had a significant positive path coefficient (0.585) on organizational commitment, and organizational commitment had a significant negative path coefficient (-0.286) on organizational presenteeism, all at the 0.01 level of significance. Additionally, the indirect effect of leader-member exchange on organizational presenteeism through the mediating role of organizational commitment was significant, with a Sobel test statistic of 2.627 at the 0.05 level of significance.
Conclusion: Overall, the results of this study indicate that improving leader-member exchange as well as increasing organizational commitment can lead to a reduction in organizational presenteeism in an academic environment.

Content and Theme Analysis of Articles Published in the Journal of Applied Ergonomics During 2014-2023

Narmin Hassanzadeh-Rangi

Objectives: Scientometrics is a research field that examines and analyzes scientific trends and patterns in various scientific journals. This study aims to analyze the content of articles published in the Journal of Applied Ergonomics in the last ten years and determine the distribution pattern of the articles according to the themes extracted.
Methods: Using the method of directed content analysis, the number of 2,148 articles published in the last 10 years were extracted from the "Journal of Applied Ergonomics" website and categorized according to the topic, the nationality of the authors, and the year of publication. For the topic categories of articles, the existing categories of published articles and the topic tree schema of the article submission website of selected international journals were used. EXCEL 2021 software was used for data preparation and analysis.
Results: Among the twenty-two extracted topics, three main topics, including "Physio-psychological Status and Occupational Factors," "Human-machine interaction, Human-computer interaction", and "Ergonomic product and service design" elucidated approximately 50% of the variance in published articles in this reputable journal under study. Among these, there was a particular emphasis on the topic of "Physio-psychological status and occupational factors." The subjects of "Physio-psychological status and occupational factors," "Human-machine interaction," and "Human-computer interaction" have had an upward trend in recent years. Moreover, authors from the United States of America, with 25.84% frequency, have contributed the most to the publication of articles in this Journal.
Conclusion: The thematic framework and distribution patterns extracted in this study can contribute to the educational and research planning in the field of professional health for universities, research centers, and relevant organizations. These findings can guide strategic decisions and support targeted efforts to advance ergonomic practices and the dissemination of knowledge within the field.

Investigating the Factors Affecting the Performance of Urban Bus Drivers Using the Macro Ergonomics Approach: A Qualitative Study

Reza Kazemi

Objectives: The current qualitative study aimed to understand the factors affecting the optimal performance of bus drivers using the macro ergonomics approach and the work systems model. This topic is important as it addresses significant gaps in the existing literature regarding the ergonomic and systemic factors influencing driver performance.
Methods: In this study, 13 in-depth interviews were conducted with bus drivers. A qualitative content analysis of the data was performed using MAXQDA2020 software after data collection. Codes were extracted based on nine categories of factors affecting performance related to the five components of the work system: organizational, individual, environmental, task, and technology.
Results: The analysis revealed that employees reported low performance mainly due to organizational structural problems and managerial characteristics. These findings highlight the critical role of organizational factors in driver performance.
Conclusion: The results indicate that ergonomic interventions targeting organizational structural issues and managerial practices could significantly improve the performance and satisfaction of bus drivers. The insights gained from this research can inform practical interventions to improve the working conditions and overall performance of this occupational group. These findings contribute to the field by providing a direction for enhancing the work system to better support driver performance.