Affiliations: IRSST, Monteral, Qu{e}bec, Canada | Safety Ergonomics Program, IRSST, Montréal,
Québec, Canada | Biological Sciences Department, Université du
Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montréal, Québec, Canada | Robens Centre for Health Ergonomics, EIHMS, University
of Surrey, Guildford, UK | LD Sénil, Grealou, France | Research Center, Hôpital Charles LeMoyne, School
of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Abstract: A literature review revealed that cashiers are the most studied of
all supermarket workers, while little is known about other types of employees.
However, cashiers are far from being the only supermarket workers affected by
musculoskeletal disorders. The musculoskeletal health of supermarket employees
other than cashiers was therefore examined for one company. Two sources of data
were used: compensation statistics (from the company's 57 corporate
supermarkets) and self-reported questionnaires (administered in 4 selected
stores). These sources provided very different descriptive statistics, both in
terms of the size of problems (depending on which aspects were compared,
compensation statistics depicted 2 to 18 times fewer disorders than
self-reports), and in terms of which body regions were most affected. There
were also discrepancies with regard to identifying those departments which were
most at risk (wrappers according to self-reports, delicatessen according to
compensation reports). According to self-reports, 83% of workers (excluding
cashiers) reported at least one musculoskeletal disorder over a 12-month
period, and 32% had problems severe enough to impede regular activities.
Different approaches to calculating rates were also used within each data
source. Calculations using the number of hours worked annually by all
workers were deemed to be the best. The significance of these results for
supermarket employees and in terms of intervention and prevention in other
sectors is examined.
