Overview
Keywords: Fatigue; Musculoskeletal Disorders; Quality
Timeline: December 4, 2012
Presenters: Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD)
Funder: CRE-MSD
Project type: Conference
Sector/Workplace type: All
Themes:
Theme
1
Injury
mechanisms
Theme
2
Risk
factors
Theme
3
Risk
assessment
and
hazard
identification
Theme
4
Interventions
Background/rationale
Fatigue of the neuromuscular system can lead to both short and longer term effects.
In the short term: reduced performance, discomfort, reduced worker satisfaction, increased incidence of accidents, reduced productivity, and reduced quality of work.
In the longer term: consequences potentially include myalgia, burnout syndromes, reduced quality of life, and increased risk of MSDs.
Goals and process
The purpose of this conference was to discuss the importance of considering fatigue in the workplace and the implications for prevention programs to industry experts, researchers and health and safety practitioners.
The day consisted of six presentations delivered by researchers with an expertise in fatigue followed by a panel discussion with representatives from industry with audience questions.
Summary
The presentations topics were:
- The importance of neuro-muscular fatigue at work
- Designing jobs in manufacturing: Rest allowances
- Preventing fatigue during repetitive tasks: Predicting maximal acceptable loads using fatigue curves
- Fatigue during prolonged sitting and standing
- Relationships between physical and mental fatigue and task performance
- Healthy office work: Rest breaks and movement
Implications for the prevention of MSDs
Reducing fatigue and preventing MSDs at the workplace might lead to improved production quality for employers and improved long-term health outcomes.
Knowledge dissemination
For summary, presentations and videos, see the Reducing fatigue and preventing MSDs in the workplace event page.