Abstract
Little research exists that quantifies joint kinematics and associated musculoskeletal discomfort. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between musculoskeletal discomfort and trunk kinematic factors, workplace factors, and personal factors of those performing manual materials handling jobs in manufacturing environments. An industrial database of 337 subjects was used in this study. The results showed that the prevalence of reported low-back discomfort was 36.5%. The findings suggested that both workplace factors and kinematics were related to an employee's reported discomfort. Generally, physical parameters were associated with overall discomfort (‘No’ or ‘Yes’), whereas trunk kinematics seem to be associated with discomfort of specific body parts. The magnitudes of these associations were not large, implying that multifactorial models that include other factors, such as psychosocial indicators, in addition to those studied here, may further explain discomfort reporting.
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