Investigation general and specific methods of assessing ergonomic risk factors related to musculoskeletal disorders - a systematic review

Musculoskeletal disorders related to work are one of the most common causes of absenteeism. In order to reduce the damage caused by these disorders, first, we should try to identify the risk factors and the factors affecting it, and in the next step, evaluate them. The purpose of this article is a systematic review of the methods of risk assessment of ergonomic factors related to musculoskeletal disorders.

In this review, all articles published in Farsi and English in the field of ergonomic risk factor evaluation methods related to musculoskeletal disorders (March 2015 to December 2022) (last search date) were investigated. For this purpose, a systematic search of articles using Persian keywords (methodology, hand carrying loads, observational methods, instrumental methods, self-report methods, physical condition, questionnaire, musculoskeletal disorders, upper limb, lower limb, evaluation risk, ergonomic assessment, posture assessment) and their English equivalents were performed in PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of science, Cochrane library, Embase, SID, Scopus, Magiran Iran Medex databases. Unrelated articles were removed using PRISMA statement guidelines, and finally articles that were completely related to the study were examined. GraySource and BASE databases were used to find gray sources.

Initially, 1176 articles were identified from different databases and a total of 82 articles were selected for final review. In some reliable sources, the risk assessment methods of ergonomic factors related to musculoskeletal disorders are classified into three categories: observational (42 articles), instrumental (11 articles) and self-report (29 articles). Pen-paper-based observational methods were among the most common methods used in ergonomic evaluations. Among the investigated individual reporting methods, the Nordic questionnaire was the most widely used tool (87% of the articles), followed by the Cornell questionnaire (13% of the articles). Some occupations, such as nurses, also have specific methods for assessing ergonomic risk factors (MAPO, DINO).

It is suggested that the ergonomic risk assessment methods of musculoskeletal disorders should be multi-factorial (individual, occupational and psycho-social) and specific methods should be developed for jobs with high diversity in job duties.