Ergonomics in design: interventions for youth working in the agricultural industry

Abstract

Youth and adolescents make up a substantial segment of the working population in the agricultural industry and many of these young workers are required to perform physically demanding jobs that put them at significant risk for developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Although there are no surveillance systems in place to track these potential injuries for youth who work in agriculture, based on our understanding of the magnitude of risk for these tasks, a number of interventions have been developed and evaluated that should reduce the risk of MSDs for youth who perform these high risk tasks. The purpose of this article is to raise the research community’s awareness to the risk of work-related MSDs for youth who work in agriculture and to demonstrate that ergonomic designers are best suited to develop cost-effective interventions for use in these tasks that can be easily implemented.

Keywords:

• youth
• farms
• lifting
• musculoskeletal disorders