TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Perceived risk of low-back injury among four occupations
JO  - Human factors
A1  - Snow, Chelsea R.
A1  - Gregory, Diane E.
SP  - 586
EP  - 594
VL  - 58
IS  - 4
N2  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the perception of risk of low-back injury of individuals from four groups: office/administrative employees, dental workers (dentists/dental hygienists), firefighters, and undergraduate students. <br><br>BACKGROUND: The concept of worker's perception of injury risk has been used to set safe material-handling limits and to determine compliance with health and safety regulations but has not been used to identify perceptual differences among occupations or potential deficiencies in risk awareness. <br><br>METHOD: Participants (N = 232) were presented with eight images of different low-back postures/tasks and were required to rate their perceived magnitude of low-back risk on a scale from 0 (no risk) to 10 (extreme risk). <br><br>RESULTS: Office/administrative and dental workers rated postures higher than firefighters and students. Individuals from all groups perceived kyphotic postures as having a higher low-back risk than lordotic postures. Further, office and dental workers, compared to firefighters and students, perceived sitting postures to have a relatively higher level of risk, likely due to these postures being typically adopted by these individuals at work. No relationship between previous low-back pain and risk rating was observed in this study. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Low-back injury risk perception varies between occupations/groups and may be a result of different exposures. APPLICATION: The results of this study can potentially be used to implement occupation-specific training programs to ensure that the scientific research regarding low-back injuries is being properly conveyed to employees across all sectors.<br><br>© 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0018-7208
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018720816640142
ID  - ref1
ER  -