Ergonomic Improvements to Agricultural Harvest Baskets to Reduce the Risk of Musculoskeletal Disorders among Farmers

Mintae Seo, Hyocher Kim and Wongeon Jung ()
Additional contact information
Mintae Seo: National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, 310 Nongsaengmyeong-ro, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si 54875, Korea
Hyocher Kim: National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, 310 Nongsaengmyeong-ro, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si 54875, Korea
Wongeon Jung: National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, 310 Nongsaengmyeong-ro, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si 54875, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-12

Abstract: Typical harvesting baskets (TB) are used in various agricultural workplaces; however, no study to date has reported their effect on the musculoskeletal system. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of a novel basket with attached rotational handles (RHB) to help alleviate the work-related physical burden of farmers. We analyzed the surface electromyograms (EMGs) of seven muscles, evaluated the subjective discomfort levels and locally perceived discomfort (LPD) scores to investigate the discomfort in the whole body and seven hand muscles, respectively. The EMGs showed that muscle activity decreased in five muscles (flexor carpi ulnaris, extensor carpi radialis, lateral triceps, middle deltoid, and upper trapezius) and increased in two (biceps brachii and erector spinae) when the RHB was used ( p < 0.05). The subjective discomfort score for the RHB decreased compared to that for TB ( p < 0.001). The LPD scores also decreased, and the RHB and TB scores ranged from 1.25–1.40 and 3.1–3.25, respectively. The use of the RHB may prevent wrist bending, and reduce the activity of certain muscles while increasing the activity of other muscles. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct training and to evaluate the working posture while considering the affected muscles.

Keywords: musculoskeletal burden; ergonomics; electromyography; harvesting basket; farmer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10669/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10669/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10669-:d:899045

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().