International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 1, January-2014 188
ISSN 2229-5518
Pragya Ojha, Seema Kwatra
Abstract— Safety of the workers and productivity of work in rice cultivation is impacted by the human drudgery. Musculoskel- etal disorders (MSDs) are the most common work-related problems among farm workers involved in rice transplanting activity. The main aims of the present study were to investigate the causation of discomfort related to working postures and to assess the work related musculoskeletal disorder among the farmers. For this study, 60 agricultural workers aged 25-45 years were selected randomly from the Kalinagar Village of Udham Singh District of Uttarakhand and a detailed posture analysis was performed among them by REBA and VAS methods. For the study, only uprooting and transplanting activity were selected from the rice cultivation activity. Agricultural workers suffered from pain especially in the low back, knees, hands shoulder and neck. The average REBA score observed was 10. Prolonged work activity, high repetitiveness, and remaining constantly in an awkward posture for a prolonged period of time etc. were the major factors of drudgery, acute pain and discomfort among farm workers. Index Terms— Rice Cultivation, Musculoskeletal Disorders, Drudgery, Posture Analysis, Ergonomics, Rapid Entire Body Assessment, Visual Analogue Scale
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Nearly two-third of Indian population lives in the
carrying and lifting of heavy loads and exposure to whole
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villages and depends mainly on agriculture and other related
occupations for their livelihood. They work very hard, but live
a poor life due to number of constraints, such as poor village
community facilities and resources [1]. In India, large number
of human resource is mainly associated with agricultural work (Rice cultivation) in rural areas due to poor socioeconomic status and poverty. Agricultural workers, especially rural people suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in dif-
ferent parts of the body, especially low and upper back pain, during different activities in rice cultivation. Farm workers have to perform a fair amount of manual, continuous rigorous tasks in the agricultural field. There are some activities that are mainly engaged in during rice cultivation i.e. uprooting and rice transplanting.
According to Sekimpi [2], musculoskeletal pain, especially back pain, is common among agricultural workers. He also believes that new ergonomically designed agricultural hand tools and machinery or equipment will reduce the work load and MSDs among agricultural workers. Agriculture work is mainly considered to be a highly physically demanding occu- pation [3]. More than half of the Indian population is engaged in traditional agricultural activities. Gangopadhyay et al. [4] stated that preadolescent agricultural workers are continuous- ly exposed to bending posture in different environments, and as a result, they suffer from acute pain and discomfort in dif- ferent parts of the body. During rice cultivation, farmers usu- ally use a variety of different awkward postures while per- forming various manual tasks for an extended period of time. Because of awkward and stressful postures for prolonged pe- riod of time Indian agricultural workers are suffering with high work related musculoskeletal disorders. Low back prob- lems are common among farmers, and appear to be associated with the frequency of using postures requiring back flexion,
body vibration [5]. Postures, especially those involving severe
flexion or lateral twisting and bending, have been found to be
significantly related to low back pain [6]. The main aims of the
present investigation were (1) to determine the prevalence of
work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) and drudg- ery among agricultural workers (2) to analyze the causation of discomfort resulting from awkward and stressful postures during rice cultivation.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1 Selection of subjects
For the study, 60 agricultural workers (30 male and 30 female) aged 25-45 years, were selected by simple random sampling method from the village in Udham Singh Nagar of Uttarakhand.
2.2 Visual Analogue Scale
The Visual Analog or Analogue Scale [7] is designed to present to the respondent a rating scale with minimum constraints. Re- spondents mark the location on the 10-cm line corresponding to the amount of pain they experienced. This gives them the greatest freedom to choose their pain's exact intensity. It also gives the maximum opportunity for each respondent to express a personal response style. The VAS frame measures exactly 10 cm. The dis- tances from zero to the markings in cm are result indicators to be processed as continuous variables for statistical analysis.
2.3 Postural analysis
Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) method was applied for postural analysis of work related musculoskeletal risk factors. REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) was developed by Hi- gnett, S. and McAtamney, [8] to provide a quick and easy obser-
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 1, January-2014 189
ISSN 2229-5518
vational postural analysis tool for whole body activities (static and dynamic giving musculoskeletal risk action level. The devel-
opment of REBA is aimed to divide the body into segments to be coded individually with reference to movement planes. It pro- vides a scoring system for muscle activity caused by static, dy- namic, rapid changing or unstable postures. It reflects that cou- pling is important in handling of the loads but may not always be via the hands. It also gives an action level with an indication of urgency. This method was specifically developed to be useful for assessing MSD risks/working postures found in healthcare and other service industries. However, it can be used to assess a varie- ty of tasks, in any setting, where: the whole body is being used, the posture is static, dynamic, rapidly changing, or unstable, or animate or inanimate loads are being handled either frequently or infrequently [9].
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
It was observed from Table 1 that means score of age and height of selected respondents (agriculture workers in- volved in uprooting and transplanting activity) was 34.5 and
152.8 respectively. The mean value of weight of the selected
subjects was found 48.5 kg. The average duration of work per day was observed 9.06 hours whereas the mean score of the
Physical charac- teristics | Mean | ± S.D. |
Age (yrs) | 34.5 | ± 6.04 |
Height, cm | 152.8 | ± 4.2 |
Weight, kg | 48.5 | ± 5.4 |
Duration of work per day (hours) | 9.06 | ±1.32 |
Duration of rest per day (hours) | 1.5 | ± 0.5 |
Years of Experi- ence | 18 | ±2.97 |
TABLE 2
duration of rest per day was calculated 1.5 hours. The average rate of years of work experience of agriculture workers was found 18 years.
Visual Analogue scale- Respondents were asked to
mark the location on the 10-cm line corresponding to the amount of pain they experienced. This gave them the greatest freedom to choose their pain's exact intensity. It also gave maximum opportunity for each respondent to express a per- sonal response style. Table 2 shows Visual analogue scale rat- ings for farm workers involve uprooting and transplanting activity. The mean score of VAS rating in uprooting and trans- planting activity was 7.3 and 7.0 respectively which indicated a high intensity of pain in different body parts.
Postural Analysis- Rice uprooting and transplanting
activities performed by the agricultural workers were ana- lyzed with the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) to de- termine the postural load and to categorize the potential harmfulness of the work posture (Table 3, 4). The posture codes of the REBA indicate that, postures in different phases of uprooting and transplanting activities, demand immediate attention (i.e., Work must cease until a safer solution can be found). Thus it is clear that the agricultural laborers adopt awkward postures at work and suffer from musculoskeletal disorders because they re main in such awkward postures for a prolonged period of time.
4 TABLES
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TABLE 3
TABLE 4
Task A – Manual up- rooting- Bending
REBA Score
Risk
Level Action category
Phase 1: Bending to reach the seedling on the seed bed
Phase 2: Uprooting the seedling by both the hands until those be- come hand full
Phase 3: Washing the
11 Very high
Very
12 high
Necessary ur- gent- Work must cease until a safer solution can be found
Necessary ur- gent- Work must cease until a safer solution can be found
Action needs to
bundle of rice seedling 9 high
Phase 4: Tying the bun-
dle 7 Medium
be taken very
soon
Further consid- eration should be given as to how risk can be low-
Phase 5: Keeping the
ered
Action needs to
bundle on the ground 10 high
Task B- Uprooting- Sitting
Phase 1: Reach the
be taken very
soon
Necessary ur- gent- Work must
seedlings in squatting
posture
Phase 2: Uprooting by double hand operation alternately in same pos- ture
Phase 3: Washing the
12 Very
high
12 Very high
cease until a
safer solution can be found
Necessary ur- gent- Work must cease until a safer solution can be found
Action needs to
bundle 10 high
Phase 4: Tying the bun-
dle 6 Medium
be taken very
soon
Further consid- eration should be given as to how risk can be low- ered
Phase 5: Keeping the
bundle on the ground 8 high
Action needs to be taken very soon
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ISSN 2229-5518
4 ERGONOMICS INTERVENTIONS
The following are possible ergonomic interventions that we
identified to increase the value of this investigation.
Repetition of work in uprooting and transplanting activity, which causes musculoskeletal disorders, should be avoided. Kogi [10] also recommended brief intra-work pauses to de- crease fatigue in repetitive work in which the muscles can rest after experiencing a static load and a break after a peri- od of continuous work.
To avoid excessive physical and mental stress, short rest break should add to work schedule of agriculture workers. Muscular fatigue, level of drudgery, boredom and monoto- ny of a job of agriculture workers can be reduced with the implementation of job or work rotation policy.
5. CONCLUSION
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