Abstract
At present there is no evidence of a university ergonomics program in the literature. A preliminary review of 2186 accident records from a public university established a need for a university ergonomics program by revealing that ergonomics related injuries, primarily sprains/strains and joint/muscle/tendon injuries accounted for 35.92% of the lost workday injuries. Sprains/strains and joint/muscle/tendon injuries were further analyzed to determine the causes of these injuries, body areas injured, and to determine whether there were differences in the causes of back, upper, and lower extremity ergonomics related injuries. Overexertion and manual material handling of heavy objects were the causes, respectively, of 36.30% and 10.56% of employee sprains/strains and 38.75% and 12.5% of employee joint/muscle/tendon injuries. The results of the study indicated that a university ergonomics program should focus on reducing sprains/strains of the back and upper extremities caused by lifting heavy objects and overexerting muscles in these body areas.
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