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Assessment of Physical Work Demands of Home Care Workers in Norway: An Observational Study Using Wearable Sensor Technology

OBJECTIVES: High physical work demands are believed to be partly responsible for the high sickness absence among home care workers, but no studies have assessed their physical work demands using precise device-based measurements. Hence, the objective of this observational study was to assess physica...

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Autores principales: Tjøsvoll, Svein O, Wiggen, Øystein, Gonzalez, Victor, Seeberg, Trine M, Elez Redzovic, Skender, Frostad Liaset, Ingeborg, Holtermann, Andreas, Steiro Fimland, Marius
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35959647
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxac052
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author Tjøsvoll, Svein O
Wiggen, Øystein
Gonzalez, Victor
Seeberg, Trine M
Elez Redzovic, Skender
Frostad Liaset, Ingeborg
Holtermann, Andreas
Steiro Fimland, Marius
author_facet Tjøsvoll, Svein O
Wiggen, Øystein
Gonzalez, Victor
Seeberg, Trine M
Elez Redzovic, Skender
Frostad Liaset, Ingeborg
Holtermann, Andreas
Steiro Fimland, Marius
author_sort Tjøsvoll, Svein O
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: High physical work demands are believed to be partly responsible for the high sickness absence among home care workers, but no studies have assessed their physical work demands using precise device-based measurements. Hence, the objective of this observational study was to assess physical work demands in home care, using wearable sensors. METHODS: From six home care units in a large municipality in Norway, 114 of 195 eligible home care workers filled in a questionnaire, a diary about work hours, and wore five accelerometers, and a heart rate sensor for up to six consecutive workdays. RESULTS: On average, the homecare workers spent 50% of the working hours sitting, 25.2% standing, 11.4% moving, 8.3% walking fast, 1.9% walking slow, 1.2% stair-climbing, 0.3% cycling, and 0.05% running. We found the following exposures to demanding postures: arm-elevation in an upright body position ≥30° was 36.7%, ≥60° was 4.1%, and ≥90°was 0.5%; forward trunk inclination in an upright body position ≥30° was 9.9%, ≥60° was 4%, and ≥90° was 1%; and for kneeling it was 0.8%. We found the average cardiovascular load (%heart rate reserve) during work to be 28%. There was considerable individual variation in these physical exposures at work. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents precise information on various physical work demands of home care workers in Norway. Home care workers spent on average half the workday sitting and the remaining time in various occupational physical activities. Presently, few device-based exposure limits have been proposed for acceptable amounts of occupational physical exposures, but the level of arm-elevation, forward trunk inclination, and the considerable variation of physical workloads among home care workers, indicate that preventive measures should be taken.
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spelling pubmed-96642252022-11-14 Assessment of Physical Work Demands of Home Care Workers in Norway: An Observational Study Using Wearable Sensor Technology Tjøsvoll, Svein O Wiggen, Øystein Gonzalez, Victor Seeberg, Trine M Elez Redzovic, Skender Frostad Liaset, Ingeborg Holtermann, Andreas Steiro Fimland, Marius Ann Work Expo Health Original Articles OBJECTIVES: High physical work demands are believed to be partly responsible for the high sickness absence among home care workers, but no studies have assessed their physical work demands using precise device-based measurements. Hence, the objective of this observational study was to assess physical work demands in home care, using wearable sensors. METHODS: From six home care units in a large municipality in Norway, 114 of 195 eligible home care workers filled in a questionnaire, a diary about work hours, and wore five accelerometers, and a heart rate sensor for up to six consecutive workdays. RESULTS: On average, the homecare workers spent 50% of the working hours sitting, 25.2% standing, 11.4% moving, 8.3% walking fast, 1.9% walking slow, 1.2% stair-climbing, 0.3% cycling, and 0.05% running. We found the following exposures to demanding postures: arm-elevation in an upright body position ≥30° was 36.7%, ≥60° was 4.1%, and ≥90°was 0.5%; forward trunk inclination in an upright body position ≥30° was 9.9%, ≥60° was 4%, and ≥90° was 1%; and for kneeling it was 0.8%. We found the average cardiovascular load (%heart rate reserve) during work to be 28%. There was considerable individual variation in these physical exposures at work. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents precise information on various physical work demands of home care workers in Norway. Home care workers spent on average half the workday sitting and the remaining time in various occupational physical activities. Presently, few device-based exposure limits have been proposed for acceptable amounts of occupational physical exposures, but the level of arm-elevation, forward trunk inclination, and the considerable variation of physical workloads among home care workers, indicate that preventive measures should be taken. Oxford University Press 2022-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9664225/ /pubmed/35959647 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxac052 Text en © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Tjøsvoll, Svein O
Wiggen, Øystein
Gonzalez, Victor
Seeberg, Trine M
Elez Redzovic, Skender
Frostad Liaset, Ingeborg
Holtermann, Andreas
Steiro Fimland, Marius
Assessment of Physical Work Demands of Home Care Workers in Norway: An Observational Study Using Wearable Sensor Technology
title Assessment of Physical Work Demands of Home Care Workers in Norway: An Observational Study Using Wearable Sensor Technology
title_full Assessment of Physical Work Demands of Home Care Workers in Norway: An Observational Study Using Wearable Sensor Technology
title_fullStr Assessment of Physical Work Demands of Home Care Workers in Norway: An Observational Study Using Wearable Sensor Technology
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of Physical Work Demands of Home Care Workers in Norway: An Observational Study Using Wearable Sensor Technology
title_short Assessment of Physical Work Demands of Home Care Workers in Norway: An Observational Study Using Wearable Sensor Technology
title_sort assessment of physical work demands of home care workers in norway: an observational study using wearable sensor technology
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35959647
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxac052
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