Evaluation of employee postures in building construction with different ergonomic risk assessment methods

Abstract

The construction sector is one of the locomotive sectors for both Turkey and the World. Although the construction sector has an important economic place, it is one of the sectors where work accidents and occupational diseases are most common. Due to the excessive amount of manual transport in the construction sector, musculoskeletal disorders are more common. In the current study, a total of 39 working positions in 4 different tasks were analyzed by REBA, OWAS, and QEC risk assessment methods in order to determine the differences between methods and to determine the appropriate method for building construction activities. When the evaluation results were analyzed with the Kruskal - Wallis test, the QEC method output was separated from the other methods. Additionally, the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was conducted, with a total of 93 workers doing different tasks in building construction to map the working body pain. According to the results of the survey, the Worker Body Pain Map was created for 4 different tasks. When the results of the survey are examined, the employees have more "Low back" disorders. Among the tasks evaluated, the riskiest tasks were "Brick / Plaster Works" and "Scaffolding Works.