Title: Ergonomic assessment for work-related musculoskeletal disorders: a case study on office workers in two government organisations in the United Arab Emirates

Authors: In-Ju Kim

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Abstract: This study investigated the pervasiveness of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) amongst office workers from two government organisations (A and B) in the United Arab Emirates. The primary data were collected by self-administrative questionnaire (SAQ), Nordic musculoskeletal survey, and ergonomic assessments with the Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA) checklists. The SAQ survey from organisation A showed that the respondents' most common pain was the neck (80.00%), whilst organisation B was lower back (78.57%). According to the ROSA results, 86.49% of the respondents in organisation B required ergonomic investigations, whilst 61.76% in organisation A worked under the risk warning regions.

Keywords: ergonomic assessment; musculoskeletal disorders; MSDs; Rapid Office Strain Assessment; ROSA; work-related musculoskeletal disorders; WMSD; office workers; United Arab Emirates; UAE.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2024.139560

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2024 Vol.47 No.3, pp.334 - 353

Received: 05 Aug 2022
Accepted: 20 Aug 2022
Published online: 04 Jul 2024 *

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