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ISSN 1051-9815 (P)
ISSN 1875-9270 (E)
Impact Factor 2024: 1.7
WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary, international journal which publishes high quality peer-reviewed manuscripts covering the entire scope of the occupation of work. The journal's subtitle has been deliberately laid out: The first goal is the prevention of illness, injury, and disability. When this goal is not achievable, the attention focuses on assessment to design client-centered intervention, rehabilitation, treatment, or controls that use scientific evidence to support best practice.
WORK occasionally publishes thematic issues, but in general, issues cover a wide range of topics such as ergonomic considerations with children, youth and students, the challenges facing an aging workforce, workplace violence, injury management, performing artists, ergonomic product evaluations, and the awareness of the political, cultural, and environmental determinants of health related to work.
Dr. Karen Jacobs, the founding editor, and her editorial board especially encourage the publication of research studies, clinical practice, case study reports, as well as personal narratives and critical reflections of lived work experiences (autoethnographic/autobiographic scholarship),
Sounding Board commentaries and
Speaking of Research articles which provide the foundation for better understanding research to facilitate knowledge dissemination.
Narrative Reflections on Occupational Transitions, a new column, is for persons who have successfully transitioned into, between, or out of occupations to tell their stories in a narrative form. With an internationally renowned editorial board,
WORK maintains high standards in the evaluation and publication of manuscripts. All manuscripts are reviewed expeditiously and published in a timely manner.
WORK prides itself on being an author-friendly journal.
WORK celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2015.
*WORK is affiliated with the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT)* *WORK is endorsed by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA)* *WORK gives out the yearly Cheryl Bennett Best Paper Award*
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The use of electronic health records (EHR) is related to the improvement of service quality and care coordination. The design of this platform generally focuses on the individual use of the system and does not integrate the specific needs of workers to provide support for collaborative activities. OBJECTIVE: The study investigated how activity ergonomics (AE) contributed to improve the design of an EHR that supports the collaborative mental health care of children and youth. METHODS: This qualitative study, based on the theoretical framework of AE, used individual and group interviews and document analysis as research…procedures. The data collection occurred between March and September 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RESULTS: The study highlighted the following points: the characteristics that marked the different perceptions of workers regarding the use of a communication tool for collaborative care; the problems related to spreadsheet usability; and the desirable attributes that should be considered in the conception of a new EHR. CONCLUSIONS: The research indicated that AE favors improving the design of an EHR by incorporating the work dimension into the project.
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Keywords: Participatory design, human engineering, service integration
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Mismatch between classroom furniture and the students’ anthropometry have been identified as a major cause of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among students. Such discomforts can affect students’ performance. OBJECTIVE: This paper is aimed at investigating the prevalence of MSDs and the effect of furniture intervention among students of tertiary institutions in Northwest Nigeria. METHODS: The Cornell’s MSD questionnaire was used to investigate the prevalence of MSDs in twelve body regions of students aged between 16 and 25 years. Eleven students’ anthropometric dimensions were also measured and used to compute the ergonomically compliant furniture dimensions for the…participants. A new set of furniture was introduced, and the questionnaire was used to investigate if the intervention made was significant or not. The academic performance of some of the students before and after the intervention was analyzed using the t -test statistical technique. RESULT: None of the furniture in use was suitable for the majority of the students. MSDs prevalence ranges from 14% to 67.3% among the body regions with the students reporting that low back pain is the most prevalent (67.3%), severe (19.4%) and interfering with their studies (15.8%). The intervention also reduced MSDs in all body regions except at the upper arm and the right side of the forearm. Only sitting, knee, and popliteal heights were significantly associated with MSD occurrence. There was also a significant improvement in the students’ academic performance after the intervention (t = –3.239, p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: The limited success of the intervention is an indication of the need to carry out a more holistic intervention that incorporates other inputs such as continuous enlightenment and classroom facility design.
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Keywords: Anthropometry, musculoskeletal disorders, furniture mismatch, school ergonomics
Abstract: BACKGROUND: In a real working environment, workers’ performance depends on the level of competence, psychological and health condition, motivation, and perceived stress. These are the attributes of actual availability. It is crucial to identify the most influential attributes to develop an adequate level of worker’s performance. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to upgrade the Availability-Humanization-Model (AH-Model) with an implementation of the artificial intelligence classification tree to identify influencing factors of the well-being attributes on human performance, where the identified influencing factors are gripping points for maintaining sustainable performance in real-life conditions of different professions.…METHODS: Well-being attributes are collected with the Questionnaire Actual Availability (QAA) from AH-Model and then analysed by implementation of the decision trees classification algorithms. An embedded clustering analysis of QAA ensures an efficient feature construction and selection. It negates the need of applying tree pruning or any other noise reduction algorithms. RESULTS: An implementation of the machine learning algorithms reflects the real conditions of working environments: (a) real performance of workers depends on the perception of well-being and availability and (b) the most influencing factors explicitly reflect the content of work in a specific domain (Fintech, health, forestry, traffic) with a high level of stress. CONCLUSIONS: The presented approach offers a possibility to identify the most important well-being attributes to determine an adequate efficiency and to improve the performance level in the real working conditions.
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Keywords: Questionnaire of actual availability, well-being, artificial intelligence, machine learning, classification tree, AH -model
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Most existing models/algorithms for simulating goal-directed human motions were designed to generate a single “realistic” motion for a given input scenario. OBJECTIVE: This study presents a novel reach motion generation algorithm utilizing multiple posture memories. The algorithm aims to compute and visualize a set of human reach motions that approximates the full range of physically and physiologically feasible human motions for a given input scenario. METHODS: The algorithm utilizes posture memories constructed specifically for an individual worker using a probabilistic posture generation and registration process. The posture memories relate a hand position to the set…of postures that place the individual’s hand in its vicinity. When given an input scenario, the algorithm first generates different hand paths connecting the starting and ending hand positions specified in the scenario. Then, for each hand path, the algorithm produces different “feasible” motions by selecting and connecting multiple postures stored in the posture memories; the postures corresponding to the hand positions along the hand path are utilized. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed algorithm helps understand the impacts of workplace design on the range of feasible human motion behaviors, and, thereby, contributes to the computer-aided ergonomics design of work tasks and workplaces.
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Keywords: Digital human modeling, human motion simulation, computer-aided ergonomics, virtual ergonomics, reachability
Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine and compare the ergonomic requirements in the use of desktop computers and laptops. For comparison, postures in the sagittal and transversal planes involved while performing a typing and editing task on a desktop and laptop computers were verified. Thus, a case study was conducted with a Brazilian male of medium height, who works around 20 hours per week in a computer. Nine spherical markers of 2.5 cm in diameter were joined up with duct tape on the right side of the participant and the positions adopted by the subject were analyzed in the…use of a desktop and a laptop computer, through direct observation and filming, using the videography technique. It is concluded that the use of desktop computers has lesser biomechanical demands since it showed angles closer to a neutral position and consequently having a lower risk of musculoskeletal complaints.
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