Work Related Musculoskeletal Injury Essay

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Work-related musculoskeletal injuries are known as a common health problem and a major cause of disability. According to Occupational Therapy Coordinating Committee (2009), back injuries caused by overexertion in manual handling (33%) are the major diagnosis, followed by upper-limb injuries (23.4%), multiple musculoskeletal injuries (15.2%) and others. The increasing number of workplace injuries in recent years would undoubtedly increase the cost to employers and society including the worker’s compensation, medical care costs and decreased productivity. (Gross et. al, 2000) To reduce the work-related medical expenses, controlling the incidence of workplace injuries would be an effective way in addressing the problem. In this essay, the use …show more content…

Unlike traditional education program, task analysis quantifying the physical demand of work through worksite inspection, focus group interview identifying risk factors of musculoskeletal injuries will be conducted before developing job-specific OHEP. This program also comprises of FCE, musculoskeletal and radiological examination of lumbar spine that aims to illustrate possible health risks and consequence of improper manual handling. Besides, maximum safe and sustainable lifting weight, coping strategies including proper ergonomics and manual handling techniques will also be demonstrated to enhance worker’s response efficacy and self-efficacy at work under the Protection Motivation Theory. (Cheng & Chan, 2009; Roger, 1975) As reported by Cheng and Chan (2009), the 1-year cumulative incidence of new work-related musculoskeletal injury related to manual handling was much lower in Job-specific OHEP (3.96%) compared with the traditional one (11.11%). In addition, cost of this specific education program for each worker is only HK$680, which is much lower than the average cost for disability payment and compensation for each case (HK$28,590.19). The results above showed that job-specific occupational health education program using FCE is effective in reducing incidence of injury and, most importantly, cost

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