Continuous assessment of trunk posture in healthcare workers assigned to wards with different MAPO index

Abstract

Healthcare professionals generally experience an above-average incidence of low back disorders (LBDs) compared with workers of other professions, and its level of risk is commonly assessed using observational methods such as the MAPO method (Movement and Assistance of Hospital Patients). In this study, we continuously monitored the trunk posture of 30 healthcare workers using a single inertial sensor to: (1) understand whether the MAPO classification is effective in adequately discriminating the risk associated with the time spent in non-neutral trunk postures and (2) characterise the variability of biomechanical exposure among workers employed in wards with the same MAPO index. The results substantially confirm the validity of the MAPO approach in discriminating among wards characterised by different levels of biomechanical exposure associated with the risk of developing LBDs. However, they also highlight the need to assess workers’ exposure on an individual basis due to the high intra-group variability.

Practitioner summary: Employing a quantitative measurement setup to monitor trunk posture along with an observational method (ie MAPO) can identify the existence of criticalities or the poor application of ergonomic recommendations given during the training of healthcare workers even in hospital wards characterised by little or no risk of developing low back disorders.

Keywords:

• Healthcare workers
• low back disorders
• MAPO index
• inertial sensor

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all workers who participated in the study for their availability. In particular, the support provided by the head nurses during the data collection was greatly appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.