Original Research Article
Year: 2017 | Month: January | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 31-48
Creating Office Ergonomic Awareness among the Staff of Katsina State Local Government Offices in Nigeria: A Viable Strategy for Reducing the Prevalence of Work Related Musculo-Skeletal Disorders
Abdu Gambo, Seow Ta Wee, Sulzakimin Mohamed
Faculty of Technology Management, University Tunn Hussein Onn Malaysia
Corresponding Author: Abdu Gambo
ABSTRACT
Complaints of arms neck and shoulders (CANS) pains are common issues among the typists, secretaries, personal assistants, computer users and other related clerical activities in the governmental offices in Nigeria. This issue of work related musculo-skeletal complaints or disorders has a devastating, negative impacts on the overall workers’ output and the economy in general as a result of incessant absenteeism and loss of workers’ productivity. Previous reports have shown that, providing office ergonomic facilities which gives comfort and ease the task for the workers is not enough to tackle the epidemic of work related musculo-skeletal disorders among the workers. However, workers need to be trained and educated on the use of these ergonomic facilities, correct work postures and other issues of work place safety and health on a sustained basis. The main objective of this study is to investigate the level of office ergonomic awareness among the secretaries, typists, personal assistants, computer users and other related office activities in Katsina State Local Government offices in Nigeria, so as to make a case for effective intervention through creating ergonomic awareness as a sustainable measure towards reducing musculo-skeletal complaints among the workers. The methodology used in this study is questionnaire approach as a self-report instrument, using certain aspects of “Cornel Musculo-Skeletal Disorder Survey Questionnaire” (CMDQ), based on 5-Likert Scales opinion rating. This was followed by unobtrusive observation of the working postures of the questionnaire respondents in order to support and validate the findings of the questionnaire method. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation was used in analysing the questionnaire responses, using SPSS version 22. Interpretive analysis was used to interpret the observational data. The result of this study from both the questionnaire and the observation shows that, office workers in the above mentioned categories in Katsina Local Government offices in Nigeria have a poor habit of work posture as result of low level of office ergonomic awareness. It is therefore concluded that in order to tackle the problem of work related musculo-skeletal disorders among the staff of Katsina State Local Government offices, there is a strong need to create office ergonomic awareness among them for a sustainable and safe office work environment.
Key words: Office Ergonomics, Musculo-skeletal Disorders, Ergonomic Awareness
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