Physical Risk Factors among Construction Workers by Workplace Ergonomic Risk Assessment (WERA) Method

Background: The recent studies have shown that the rates of musculoskeletal injuries and disorders among workers in the construction industry are much higher than those working in other industries. The aim of this study was to investigate the physical risk factor among the workers in construction workshops using Workplace Ergonomic Risk Assessment (WERA) method. Methods: A total of 150 workers were randomly selected from five construction workshops. They were working in the wall plastering, bricklaying, and concreting tasks. During the site visit of five workshops, tasks were observed using WERA assessment. A structured interview with self-report charts (Body Discomfort Chart) was administered to participants for each task. Results: An analysis of the self-report charts revealed that 94%, 92%, and 83% of workers reported discomfort in their backs in concreting, wall plastering, and bricklaying tasks, respectively. The shoulder region was the second highest reported uncomfortable region by 86% and 84% of workers in concreting and wall plastering tasks, respectively. The wrist region was the second highest reported uncomfortable region reported by 80% of workers in bricklaying task. From the WERA assessment for wall plastering, bricklaying, and concreting tasks, the final scores were 36.57 (SD=8.62), 39.66 (SD=6.92), and 40.06 (SD=7.75), respectively. The highest and lowest scores were 5.87 (SD=1.14) and 2.21 (SD=1.28), respectively for neck and vibration in wall plastering. Conclusion: The results showed that workers have pain in their back, shoulder, wrist, elbow, neck, and leg regions during their work in wall plastering, bricklaying, and concreting tasks. The final score for concreting task was higher than wall plastering and bricklaying tasks.

Keywords:

Physical risk factor , Workplace Ergonomic Risk Assessment (WERA) , Construction industry , Body discomfort