Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
10365905 Applied Ergonomics 2014 10 Pages PDF
Abstract
Home care workers are a priority population for ergonomic assessment and intervention, but research on caregivers' exposures to hazards is limited. The current project evaluated the reliability and validity of an ergonomic self-assessment tool called Home Care STAT (Safety Task Assessment Tool). Participants (N = 23) completed a background survey followed by 10-14 days of self-monitoring with the STAT. Results showed that the most frequent task was house cleaning, and that participants regularly performed dangerous manual client moving and transferring tasks. Researcher in-home observations of 14 workers (duration ≤2 h) demonstrated that workers' self-assessments were moderately reliable. Correlational and multi-level analyses of daily self-assessment data revealed that several task exposures were significantly related to daily fatigue and/or pain. Other associations have implications for Total Worker Health™; for example, daily stress was positively associated with both pain and consumption of high calorie snacks. Findings support the STAT as a reliable and potentially valid tool for measuring home care workers' exposures to physically demanding tasks.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Computer Science Human-Computer Interaction
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