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Orthostatic symptoms, blood pressure and working postures of factory and service workers over an observed workday

Orthostatic symptoms, blood pressure and working postures of factory and service workers over an observed workday

Authors :
Alain Steve Comtois
Karen Messing
Suzy Ngomo
Hélène Perrault
Source :
Applied Ergonomics. 39:729-736
Publication Year :
2008
Publisher :
Elsevier BV, 2008.

Abstract

North American workers usually stand while working, and prolonged standing is associated with discomfort and cardiovascular problems. Moving may alleviate the problems, but optimum mobility is unknown. The effects of variations in mobility were explored among (1) 34 health care workers whose symptoms of orthostatic intolerance (OI) were recorded after work; (2) 45 factory and laundry workers. Postures were observed over a workday and blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) of both groups were recorded before and after work. Among health care workers, 65% manifested OI symptoms. In a multiple logistic regression, presence of ⩾1 symptom of OI was associated with static postures and being female (p=0.001). More static standing was associated with a larger drop in BP (p=0.04) in both populations. The results suggest that more static standing postures are associated with OI and musculoskeletal symptoms and with a subclinical drop in BP.

Details

ISSN :
00036870
Volume :
39
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Applied Ergonomics
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....cbe04ed8a010253a2c2cc6f71e5037a5
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2007.11.004