Planteamiento de estrategia de higiene postural en trabajadores de la palma aceitera, con base al análisis de factores de riesgo ergonómico

Abstract

Musculoskeletal disorders (SMD) are one of the most common occupational diseases affecting thousands of workers around the world, mainly related to factors such as manual handling of loads, forced postures and repetitive movements (European Agency for Safety and Health in the Work, 2019). The agricultural sector is especially considered by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as one of the most dangerous work activities due to the great postural burden to which workers are exposed. The objective of this work is to propose a strategy for postural correction during the tasks carried out in the process of harvesting the oil palm fruit to reduce exposure to ergonomic risk factors in the company Inversiones El Borrego SAS, through an ergonomic evaluation. With the REBA method (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) that 53 workers distributed in the positions of cutter, gatherer and various trades are evaluated through photographic material of the positions adopted during their working day and conducting a survey with questions associated with the sociodemographic profile added to the application of the Nordic Kuorinka questionnaire in order to establish the present symptoms. According to the results of the Nordic questionnaire, it was observed that 70% of the workers manifested discomfort in some part of the body associated in 53% with discomfort at the dorsal-lumbar level followed by the neck in 19%. The application of the REBA method revealed the prevalence of a medium risk level in the three study groups with 90% in cutters, 59% in gatherers and 36% in various trades; However, it should be noted that the position with the highest percentage of high risk level was that of garbage collector 41% and the one with the highest percentage of low risk level was that of various trades 55%. On the other hand, no statistically significant association was found between the assessment of the method and the discomfort presented. However, the age of the workers is a risk factor associated with the appearance of TME.