A woodchuck

Project WOODCHUCK.

The Ergonomic Assessment of an Animal Care Facility

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  Frequency of injury by age and location of injury on body
     
  Average frequency of injury by age at time of injury

Relationship between age and frequency of injury.

Montreuil, et al. (1996) found that of textile tufting workers engaged in manual materials handling tasks, those from age 25 to 35 were most seriously effected by musculoskeletal pain. He cited the healthy worker effect as possibly contributing to this, however, the important point is that age 25-35 seems to be the "turning point" in the professional life of the workers where they begin to complain of musculoskeletal problems, especially in terms of frequency and intensity of pain. Though our study found a continued increase in reported injuries with age, our results support the finding that injuries increase significantly for the 25-35 year age group (see table).

Montreuil, et al. also found that as people grow older they develop more symptoms in the neck and shoulder regions. He found that no workers in the youngest class, 15-25, suffered from neck and shoulder pain, but that neck and shoulder pain increased up to the oldest age group, 46+, where it decreased. The same pattern is found in our data, with neck and shoulder injuries appearing first in the 25-35 year age group and increasing up to the 46+ year age group, where reported injuries decrease (see figure).

 

Reference:
Montreuil, S.; Laflamme, L.; and Tellier, C. (1996). Profile of the musculoskeletal pain suffered by textile tufting workers handling thread cones according to work, age, and employment duration. Ergonomics, 39(1), 76-91.

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This page created by Richard Porter.
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rlp6@cornell.edu

Last modified May 14, 1997