Importance of ergonomics at household level: a participatory approach

Abstract

It is beyond doubt that kitchen activities demand a high degree of physical effort, leading to fatigue. The major causative factors responsible for this are the static muscular effort and adopting unnatural postures, mainly resulting from bad design of kitchen layout. A standardization module in the form of flap book was developed for imparting training to housewives. Concept of ergonomics, ergonomic approach to workstation design, importance and contribution of ergonomics in work station design, importance and use of anthropometry, musculo skeletal problems in standing, work surface dimension for standing kitchen and finally recommendation for different workstation designs along with right posture were included in the module. The reliability index for the same was calculated to 0.71. Results of pre-exposure of the knowledge tool revealed that most of the respondents (56.66 %) lie in the low level of knowledge category. They were not aware about the concept and role of ergonomics. Although all the respondents complained about musculo skeletal disorders but they were unaware about the hidden cause of musculo skeletal disorders. When they were exposed to the developed training module it was found that knowledge level of all the respondents increased and 100 per cent respondents reached high level of knowledge category. The scores of retention of knowledge after 15 days of exposure to training media showed that 86.67 per cent had a high level of retention of knowledge. A significant relationship was also found in pre and post tests score.