Ergonomics Analysis and Social Demographic Factors Associated with Welder in Small-scale Workshops in Makassar, Indonesia
Abstract
Welding is an important process of steel fabrication. Even though welder is associated with various occupational hazards, there is limited information of work-related health problems within this occupational group. This study aimed to gather information about occupational hazards, use of personal protective equipment, and demographics among small-scale welding workshops. A work site-based cross-sectional study
was conducted at 34 small-scale welding workshops in Makassar, Indonesia. Interviews, questionnaire, and direct observation used to collect data on demographic characteristics, occupational hazards, and musculoskeletal disorder experience. The demographic factors that were collected were age, work duration, educational status, work experience, technical training, safety tools, also smoking and drinking habit. Working posture assessed using OWAS and level of musculoskeletal disorder using Nordic body map. Descriptive statistics and bivariate logistic regression was used for correlations analysis. In general, result indicated that workers were 34 ± 11 years old, 66 percent married, 78 percent smoking, 22 percent had drinking habit, 56 percent had grade school education or less, 66 percent were employed for more than 4 years, 73 percent worked less than 8 hours a day, 95 and 84 percent, respectively, did not take safety training and safety awareness. Work condition assessed concludes that 36 percent of participants perceived the temperature was hot, 47 percent noisy, 66 percent illuminations were good enough, and 44 percent did not use chair to support
them. Nordic body map and OWAS posture analysis indicated that 51 percent welders were experiencing moderate level of musculoskeletal complaint and 55 percent welders were category 3. Nevertheless, the only factor having a significant value associated with musculoskeletal symptoms was working posture (p-value = 0.030). Welders in this study were experiencing musculoskeletal complaint of back pain, hip, forearm, buttock, and shoulder; which OWAS suggest need improvement immediately. Further research needed within this occupational group to improve working posture, safety, and protective equipment awareness, also avoiding musculoskeletal disorder.
Keywords: welder, small-scale workshop, posture, musculoskeletal disorder, OWAS, occupational safety
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