Electromyography as a measure of peak and cumulative workload in intermediate care and its relationship to musculoskeletal injury: an exploratory ergonomic study.
Injury rates in Intermediate Care (IC) facilities are high and the factors related to these injuries are unclear. The objectives of this exploratory sub-study, which is part of a large multi-faceted study in 8 IC facilities are to: (1) evaluate EMG measured over a full-shift in the back and shoulders of 32 care aides (CAs) as an indicator of peak and cumulative workload (n = 4 x 8 facilities); investigate the relationship between EMG measures and injury indicators; and explore the relationship between EMG measures and other workload measurements. Lumbar EMG was converted to predicted cumulative spinal compression and ranged in CAs from 11.7 to 22.8 MNs with a mean of 16.4 MNs. Average compression was significantly different during different periods of the day (p
