Ergonomics Costs of 24 Selected Household and Personal Care Activities by Elderly Females and Technologies to Reduce Them

摘要

Assessment of ergonomics costs (Heart rate, Energy expenditure, Total cardiac cost of work and physiological cost of work); was made on twenty elderly women of mean age 75 +- 3 years, mean height 154.9 +- 5.0 cm, mean weight 71 +- 4 kgs, mean heart rate 76 +- 4 b.min~(-1) and mean blood pressure 126 +- 8/76 +- 4 mm Hg while they performed 24 selected household and personal care activities under existing and improved working conditions. These activities were : peeling potatoes; chopping cabbage and potatoes, grating onions; stacking utensils and clearing up; making chapatis; ripping off seams, cutting cloth; restitching edges; washing clothes; ironing clothes; climbing stairs; carrying load; opening jar, picking up items from floor; reaching out for high shelf; filling hot water in water bottle; opening medicine bottle; cutting and sorting out pills; using toilet; bathing; dressing; making bed; dusting and arranging items for night. Technologies used in reducing ergonomics costs by making improvements were; use of help aids for elderly; ergonomically designed furniture and work surfaces; work simplification techniques, congenial environment and labor saving devices. Results revealed that heart rate and energy expanded by elderly were maximum for washing clothes and climbing stairs. Total cardiac cost of work was highest for bathing and washing activity whereas physiological cost of work peaked during stair climbing and washing of clothes. Maximum time was taken by them for bathing and chapati making. Improved technologies brought about maximum percentage reduction in heart-rate and energy expenditure (90.37 and 90.94 percent respectively) when elderly subjects picked up items from floor with magnet picker followed by cutting and sorting out of medicines with pill cutter and weekly pill box and reaching for high shelf with the help of a reacher. However dressing up with improved method accounted to slight increase in both the parameters. Maximum percentage reduction (88.06 percent) in total cardiac cost of work was observed while cutting and sorting out medicines by subjects followed by cutting cloth with easy squeeze scissors, making bed using 'one trip tuck in method' on raised bed; opening jar with jar opener and chopping cabbage on chopping board and potatoes with rocking knife. Maximum percentage reduction (88.21 and 88.13 percent) in physiological cost of work was seen when subjects opened jar and filled hot water in water bottle using water bottle holder respectively; followed by making bed and cutting cloth, using improved technologies; dusting with static duster and climbing stairs using climbing stick. Maximum percentage reduction (56.71 percent) in time spent by elderly subjects was found while cutting and sorting out medicines, followed by grating onions (on grater support), dusting, making bed, and chopping using improved methods and help-aids. Maximum overall percentage reduction (74.22 percent) was observed while cutting and sorting out medicines by elderly subjects followed by picking up items from floor, opening jar, cutting cloth, making bed and dusting. Ripping off seams with the help of seam ripper, however resulted in overall increase (44.68 percent) in observed parameters. Minimum overall percentage decrease (10.18 percent) was found while subjects dressed using new method.