Abstract
Most of the agricultural activities in Ecuador are carried out by indigenous communities. Most of the elderly women from these communities suffer moderate to severe spinal deformities; previous studies suggest that one factor that could affect their back health is the lifting of heavy loads. The aim is to calculate the low back compression force using commercial software. Tasks consisting of lifting a sack by two methods were recorded in a gait laboratory. Although it is common for indigenous women to handle loads up to 45 kg, they were limited to 15 kg to reduce injuries risk. The input data to the software included gender, mass and height, and forces acting on hands, back and one shoulder. Measured and extrapolated results show that the low back compression force is significantly higher than the NIOSH recommended limits.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arenas-Ortiz, L., Cantú-Gómez, O.: Factores de riesgo de trastornos musculoesquelécos crónicos laborales. Med. Int. Mex. 29, 370–379 (2013)
Del Sol, M., Hunter, K.: Evaluación postural de individuos mapuche de la zona costera de la IX Región de Chile. Int. J. Morphol. 22(4), 339–342 (2004)
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: Work Practices Guide for Manual Lifting. Technical report number: 81-122, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (NIOSH), Cincinnati, Ohio (1981)
Waters, T.R., Putz-Anderson, V., Garg, A., Fine, L.J.: Revised NIOSH equation for the design and evaluation of manual lifting tasks. Ergonomics 36(7), 749–776 (1993)
Diego-Mas, J.: Evaluación ergonómica del levantamiento de carga mediante la ecuación de Niosh. Ergonautas, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (2015). http://www.ergonautas.upv.es/metodos/niosh/niosh-ayuda.php
Sungdo, K.: Ergonomic analysis of army backpack designs: back and shoulder stresses and their implications. Ph.D. thesis, The University of Utah, Mechanical Engineering (2014)
Kajaks, T.: Virtual ergonomics and gaming technology for posture assessment: From automotive manufacturing to firefighting. Ph.D. thesis, McMaster University – Kinesiology (2017)
Jones, T., Strickfaden, M., Kumar, S.: Physical demands analysis of occupational tasks in neighborhood pubs. Appl. Ergon. 36, 535–545 (2005)
3DSSPP Software. https://c4e.engin.umich.edu/tools-services/3dsspp-software/
Mathworks – Matlab. https://la.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html
van der Have, A., Van Rossom, S., Jonkers, I.: Squat lifting imposes higher peak joint and muscle loading compared to stoop lifting. Appl. Sci. 9(18), 3794 (2019)
Abdoli-Eramaki, M., Agababova, M., Janabi, J., Pasko, E., Damecour, C.: Evaluation and comparison of lift styles for an ideal lift among individuals with different levels of training. Appl. Ergon. 78, 120–126 (2019)
San Antonio, T., Larrea, A., Urrutia, F., Naranjo, M., Latta, M.: Influence of the traditional use of Chumbi in lumbar weakness in women of Ecuadorian highlands. Adv. Intell. Syst. 590, 229–238 (2018)
San Antonio, T., Larrea, A., Lascano, A., Urrutia, J.: Ergonomic evaluation of daily activities of women from a community in the Ecuadorian Highlands. Adv. Intell. Syst. 789, 102–110 (2019)
Acknowledgments
This work is being funded by (1) Dirección de Investigación y Desarrollo (DIDE), of Universidad Técnica de Ambato under the project: “Influence of the traditional use of chumbi in musculoskeletal disorders associated with the manipulation of loads in women of the Ecuadorian highlands” and (2) Corporación Ecuatoriana para el Desarrollo de la Investigación y la Academia (CEDIA) under the project: CEPRA XIII-2019-14, Llankak Warmikunata Kamachikkuna (Protect the working woman).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ciaccia, M., Mejía, C., Vásquez, C., San Antonio, T. (2020). Ergonomic Evaluation of Agriculture-Related Activities Performed by Ecuadorian Indigenous Women. In: Karwowski, W., Goonetilleke, R., Xiong, S., Goossens, R., Murata, A. (eds) Advances in Physical, Social & Occupational Ergonomics. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1215. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51549-2_46
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51549-2_46
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-51548-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-51549-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)