Volume 3, No. 2 (2018)
Published online on 1 December 2018
Articles
Valentine@Japulee GANTUL1, Jac Fang LIM1, Mohd Yusof SIDEK2, Wan Mohammad ZAHIRUDDIN2, Noraziah BAKRI1, Leonard MASUDAL1, Andrew GITAM1, Simson GUNSALAM1
Page 1 – 11 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Sick building syndrome is a term that has been described as a complex of non-specific symptoms caused by working in buildings with an adverse indoor environment. This study sought to determine the prevalence and factors associated with sick building syndrome among office workers in Federal House, Kota Kinabalu. A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to July 2010 among 361 office workers in Federal House, Kota Kinabalu. All workers who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Respondents were interviewed using questionnaire which was translated to Bahasa Malaysia and validated to identity the socio-demography, work environment and symptoms of sick building syndrome. Indoor air assessment was done to determine the selected chemical and physical parameters. Data were entered and analysed by SPSS 12.0 using descriptive, univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses. The majority of the respondents were female (61.2%) and the staff involved were professional and management group (3.0%), support group I (82.3%) and support group II (14.7%). The mean age was 35.6 (9.22) years and median duration of working at the current workplace was 36 (76.0) months. The prevalence of sick building syndrome was 47.4% (95% CI: 42.2%, 52.5%). Logistic regression analysis showed that significant risk factors associated with sick building syndrome were female (OR: 2.12; 95% CI: 1.34, 3.35; p=0.001), history of allergic (OR: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.30, 4.19; p=0.001) and draught condition in work environment (OR: 2.71; 95% CI: 1.70, 4.32; p=0.001). Physical parameters were above the standard level but concentration of the chemical parameters was within the normal value. The prevalence of sick building syndrome was considered high. Those who had history of allergic, female and exposed to draught condition in work environment were at higher risk of sick building syndrome. Medical follow up should be carried out for the affected worker with regular indoor air monitoring in the workplace.
Muhammad Fuad, MOHD1, Hazreen H., HARITH1, *
Page 12 – 16 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Agricultural activities in Malaysia is still laborious at large as numerous tasks are performed manually, including in the oil palm industry. The involvement of manual and energy-intensive activities for harvesting tasks in oil palm plantations partly limits its productivity. The manufacturing industry still involves manual tasks, however, exoskeleton systems are actively adopted to improve productivity and safety of operations involving human. Therefore, we postulate that they could also be applied in the agricultural industry. A challenge in adopting any commercially available exoskeleton system for harvesting oil palm trees is to match the system’s feature and the requirements of the harvesting task. Since manual harvesting requires extensive upper limb motion, therefore this study investigates the feasibility of using a passive upper limb exoskeleton system for manual harvesting activity. Electromyography (EMG) signal of the anterior deltoid muscle located at the shoulder was compared when carrying 2 kg, 4 kg and 5 kg loads with and without an upper limb exoskeleton system. The test involved tugging motion and holding the weights at arm’s length for 1 minute. EMG results indicate that the muscle activity was reduced when performing these exercises while donning the exoskeleton for all tested loads. Nonetheless, the exoskeleton design requires optimization to suit oil palm harvesting tasks so that the productivity and safety of manual oil palm harvesting activity can be enhanced.
N .K. Khamis1, *, S.Z Ibrahim11
Page 17 – 29 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Performance and efficiency impairment is a critical issue particularly in the workplace. It may lead to undesirable consequences such as injury, accident and profit loss if this issue was not controlled properly in the organisation. Therefore, the three main objectives of this review are: to assess the current status of human performance research by using heart rate (HR) as physiological measures; to find relationship between HR measures and individual performance; and to identify pertinent issues related to human fatigue. A systematic literature search was performed using the following key words and synonyms: Heart rate, human, individual, occupational, worker, performance, and fatigue. Twenty two relevant laboratory studies were discussed in this review paper, chosen from electronic databases. Numerous human performance detection methods and techniques were found in the past studies. Based on this review, HR can assist researchers to determine performance according to a task demand, condition and its complexity. Overall, this review equips interested research groups, occupational health physicians, and employers with an overview of the HR measures to determine human performance in daily work practices. Future studies are needed to deal with performance and efficiency issues in daily work practices should be based on these concerns and factors found in this review.
Nuaim WAN ZULKIPLI2, Ibrahim Adham TAIB1, Niza SAMSUDDIN1, Muhammad Lokman MD. ISA2
Page 30 – 34 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
According to the World Health Organization, the reduction of accidental injury during medical procedure is heavily influenced by patient safety culture in hospitals. Patient safety culture is a collective shared behavior ranging from individual and group values, attitudes and perception that determine the commitment of an organization‟s safety management. Organizations such as the National Health Services and the National Quality Forum have suggested that by measuring patient safety culture, the healthcare industry can be improved by assessing their ability to deal with risky healthcare delivery. Because of that, a number of hospitals in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and United States of America have measured their healthcare professionals‟ patient safety attitude by using various validated safety attitude tools. One of the most commonly used tools is the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ), which has been proven by many studies to have good construct validity, internal consistency and domains properties that are associated with patient safety outcomes. The SAQ can measure healthcare professionals‟ attitude through six domains, which are teamwork climate, safety climate, perception on management, job satisfaction, working condition and stress management. Despite its importance, there is insufficient data on patient safety culture among Malaysian healthcare professionals. Thus, this study was designed to investigate differences in patient safety culture attitudes among selected healthcare professionals and types of hospital….
Nuur Asikin ABD RAMAN1, Ibrahim Adham TAIB1, *, Samsul DRAMAN2
Page 35 – 43 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Worldwide, medical errors occur at an unacceptable rate. Fortunately, various steps can be taken to minimise medical errors, including submitting reports to incident reporting systems, following which incidents can be categorised using error classification systems to inform risk management strategies. To this end, a diverse range of classification systems have been developed for different healthcare settings, but primary care in Malaysia has received limited attention. This study was carried out to develop an error classification system for categorising the type of medical errors in Malaysian primary care by integrating and modifying two primary care error classification systems. The new error classification system comprised of eleven major categories that branched into a total of 60 lower categories. After 107 participants analysed three cases studies, the inter-rater reliability of the 11 major categories were found to be low (Krippendorff‘s alpha = 0.347). Unsurprisingly, the 60 lower categories had an even lower inter-rater reliability (Krippendorff‘s alpha = 0.143). The participants then provided feedback about the error classification system by completing a modified questionnaire. Most of the participants viewed the error classification system as easy to use and understand. Furthermore, most of them would be willing to use the error classification system again in the future. In summary, this study successfully developed an error classification system for Malaysian primary care. Nevertheless, its low level of reliability would need to be addressed before the system can be adopted by primary care providers.
Sharifah Aznee SYED ALI1, 2, Seri Rahayu KAMAT2, Kalthom Husin3
Page 44 – 50 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Food production workstation is one of the most risky areas and equipped with different tools and materials which potentially to slip and fall accidents. The aim of this study is to analyse the discomfort working body posture and activities in small medium enterprise (SME) food industry, which contributes to slip and fall accidents. Forty workers at least one-year experience working in food SME industry were involved. A quantitative and qualitative method using survey through questionnaire and observation were utilized to identify workers’ experience in the food production workstation. RULA assessment was used to validate the instrument focusing on specific body discomfort or pain. The results indicated that seven critical activities of the food production workstation contributed to high RULA score of 7. The findings from this study yielded that minimizing the work shift was necessary to reduce the effect of prolonged standing. Workers who experienced prolonged standing would lead to fatigue and this condition triggered the potential to slip and fall hazard. Determining the best practices during work is useful for SME food industry in terms of limitation angle of the working posture, manual handling and suitable workstation. The outcome can be a guideline to the food service industries for precaution on the safety and health matters in the workstation.
Che Norazri bin CHE DIN1 & Nik Ramli bin NIK ABDUL RASHID2
Page 51 – 60 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Ergonomic Citizenship Behaviour (ECB) is an employee extra role behaviour towards ergonomics. ECB is a new construct which is generally adapted from well-established studies relating to Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) and more recently of Safety Citizenship Behaviour (SCB). The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between specific Organizational Climate dimensions namely as Autonomy, Involvement, Supervisory Support and Welfare with ECB. Data were obtained from 448 employees who work in OSHMS certified manufacturing located in northern region of peninsular Malaysia using self-administered questionnaire. Data were analysed using Partial Least Square (Smart PLS) version 2.0. Based on the statistical analyses conducted, the findings revealed that the specific Organizational Climate Dimensions namely Autonomy, Involvement, Supervisory Support and Welfare has significant relationship with ECB. This relationship was explained from the perspective of Social Exchange Theory. This study offers empirical evidence of the new proposed construct of ECB, which very useful for prevention of employee un-ergonomics behaviour at the workplace.
Elvin Vijaya Kumar
Page 61 – 64 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
The Malaysian construction sector recorded the highest number of work related fatalities and one of the critical reasons is lack of knowledge among the management team and workers where a safety and health officer’s (SHOs) duty is to advise the employer. The study investigates the possible causes that could affect the credibility of the SHOs advice that positively associated to the knowledge of the employers on safety and health matters. The underlying possibilities were brainstormed through cause effect analysis technique by qualified subject matter experts. The study also suggested several recommendations for review and future solution of the unhealthy human factor of biased safety and health officer’s advice in Malaysian construction industry.
C. D. M. ASYRAF1, *, M. N. A. RAHMAN2, R. M. ZEIN3, HARI KRISHNAN. T. S.4, J. MD SAH1
Page 65 – 70 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
This paper presented survey questionnaire for analysis of musculoskeletal symptom called Body Symptom Survey (BOSS) Questionnaire suitable for industrial applications. The survey can be performed through self-administered or through interviews. Similar to other musculoskeletal questionnaires, the main purpose of the questionnaire is to serve as a screening tool to identify a body parts symptoms related to musculoskeletal disorders in ergonomics context. The two main focus of the questionnaires are the frequency and the severity of the symptom of complaints by the worker. Structure and instruction on usage of BOSS Questionnaire are presented. Example of case study using BOSS questionnaire among 60 workers at manufacturing industry are included in this study.
Muhammad Syafiq SYED MOHAMED, Isa HALIM, Akmal Hafiz AZANI, Mohanathas NADRAJAH, Siti Khadijah KHALIL
Page 71 – 77 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Computer Numerical Control CNC machining center is equipped with advanced features to achieve high accuracy, reliability, repeatability and productivity. However, CNC machining centers still expose machinists to ergonomics risk factors such as awkward postures, repetitive movements, heavy lifting and prolonged standing especially during manual material handling. The aim of this study is to redesign the existing CNC machining center to improve work posture and reduce muscle activity of the lower back. Muscle fatigue survey, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) analysis and surface electromyography (SEMG) were used to assess subjective muscle fatigue, posture and muscle activity respectively. All machinists reported to experience muscle fatigue on the lower back area. Based on RULA analysis, the redesigned CNC machining center has improved the working posture of machinists as shown by a lowered RULA score from 7 to 3 for both right and left body side. SEMG results showed a significant decrease in muscle activity of the lower back. Therefore, this study concluded that the redesign of CNC machining center has shown has successfully reduced muscle fatigue and improved the work posture for the machinists.
Nur Syafiqah RAYME1 Seri Rahayu KAMAT1, Syamimi SHAMSUDDIN1
Page 78 – 83 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Laminators are people who worked with layup process in the making of composite products. In hand layup process especially manual handling, the laminators were prone to be in high risk of getting musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The ergonomic approach in manual handling was already established since 2005 however, no specific studies were done especially in this process. This paper is a continuation of the research done by the authors which focused more on the data analysis of experimental data collection. The study aims to investigate the correlation between heart rate, muscle activity, the angle of lumbar during layup and the duration of the working posture. From observations and survey done in the previous study, the laminators were exposed to awkward posture as they tended enormous size of the mould. Hence, the study collected 4 parameters data simultaneously. The analysis of the correlation was done using MINITAB software using Response Surface Method (RSM) analysis in obtaining the p-value of the model. From the data analysis, only two of the models show insignificant of correlation and 6 out of 8 models show correlations in between parameters. It is concluded that there was a correlation in between muscle activity, heart rate, the angle of lumbar and duration of posture, however, further studies should be done to cater the insignificant of the other 2 models with different muscle type of Lumbar Support Spinae and Multifidus Lumbar.
Muhamad Syukri ABDUL KHALID1, Zulhaidi MOHD JAWI1, Mohd Hafzi MD ISA1 and Muhamad Arif Fahmi ABDUL WAHAB2
Page 84 – 94 | Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018) | Available online on 1 Dec 2018
Despite being one of the main issues in automotive consumerism in Malaysia, the importance of tyre in terms of knowledge and maintenance among users are still in doubt. It can be seen that many related tyre faulty crashes have occurred in recent years. This study aims to identify and understand car users’ knowledge and practices on tyre maintenance in Malaysia. Data collection were done among car users in Klang Valley and 247 valid responses were analysed. The results indicate that users still lack in knowledge regarding tyre specifications and details. As for the maintenance, most of the users did practice recommendations accordingly with the tyre manufacturer. Apart from that, half of the respondents never check their spare tyre’s condition and a few suggested that they have no idea about presence of spare tyre in their car. To conclude, users are still lacking in knowledge regarding tyre maintenance in terms of its specifications and ideal practices. Thus, it is recommended that users to be more aware and practice a proper tyre maintenance while ensuring their tyres are always in good condition so that may, perhaps, reduce the possibility to involve in a tyre failure related crashes.