Awareness of musculoskeletal disorders hazards and controls in micro and small businesses in Ontario, Canada

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS

Prior evidence indicates that the challenges faced by micro and small businesses to preventing musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are due largely to a lack of awareness and recognition by business owners. Thus, the purpose of this study was to document the understanding and awareness of MSD hazard identification and controls among micro and small businesses, which was done using in-person surveys. Most of the small business owners and managers we surveyed lacked knowledge regarding appropriate controls for addressing MSD hazards. Traditional administrative controls and reactive approaches dominated workplace strategies, rather than engineering controls or preventative approaches. We argue that prevention strategies need to be communicated with user-friendly guidelines and tools that best suit the nature of micro and small businesses.

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Small businesses do not typically have either the human or financial resources necessary to develop health and safety programs. The traditional cycle of identify, assess, control, and check is challenging for these businesses in terms of general workplace hazards, but is more problematic for musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) related hazards. Purpose: To determine the level of awareness of MSD prevention methods and explore prevention strategies and approaches used by micro and small businesses. Methods: A total of 146 micro and small businesses in the Kitchener-Waterloo area in Ontario, Canada participated in this study. Surveys of owners and managers were completed to assess their knowledge and awareness of MSD, hazard identification, and controls. Results: Over 40% of respondents did not know or were unsure how to identify physical demands in their workplace that might need reduction. Less than 10% of small business respondents suggested that using weights lifted, dimensions, or posture is important in MSD hazard identification. Most respondents (79%) believed they knew how to reduce injury risk; however, administrative controls dominated (57%) the workplace control strategies described, especially “proper lifting,” while engineering controls comprised only 18%. Most approaches to prevent MSD were reactive. There was a preference for traditional forms of information presentation on MSD prevention, such as posters or brochures. Conclusion: There is a lack of awareness among micro and small business regarding MSD hazards and control solutions. Our results suggest that education and support programs for micro and small businesses need to focus on awareness using simple and direct messages, and that prevention activities need to focus on easy, step-by-step guidelines tailored for such businesses.

Keywords:

• Musculoskeletal disorders
• small business
• micro business
• hazard recognition
• prevention
• hazard control

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The collaboration of the Ontario Ministry of Labor Summer Student Outreach Program is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry of Labor or the province of Ontario.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Labor, Prevention Office as a part of a project on provincial guidelines on the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders.