Ergonomic Assessment of Working Postures Using NERPA and REBA Methods (Case Study: Abadan Oil Refinery)

Improper posture is recognized as one of the risk factors in musculoskeletal disorders. So, operational postures assessment is required to correct undesirable postures and reduce musculoskeletal disorders. This study was conducted to specify the risk level of working postures utilizing REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) and NERPA (Novel Ergonomic Postural Assessment) method and determining its relationship with the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders in the operational occupations of Abadan Oil Refining Company.

The current study was a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study. Using the Cochran formula, 315 of the operational employees of the Abadan Oil Refining Company were studied. Data were gathered by the methods of REBA and NERPA and analyzed using SPSS 20 and statistical tests. The statistical test of the Pearson correlation coefficient was applied to determine the correlation between the results of REBA and NERPA methods. The confidence level of 95% was taken into consideration.

Based on the results obtained from REBA method, the highest frequency percentage in the risk level of postural analysis was attributed to 206 subjects (65.4%) in the medium level, 88 subjects (27.9%) in the low level, and 20 subjects (6.3%) in the high level. Regarding the results obtained from NERPA method, the highest frequency percentage in the risk level of postural analysis was attributed to 158 subjects (50.2%) in the high level, 134 subjects (42.5%) in the medium level and 23 subjects (7.3%) were in the very high level. The statistical test results revealed that a statistically significant relationship was observed between the mean score of REBA and NERPA (P<0.001).

This studychr('39')s results declared that the NERPA method, by regarding the domain and angles of motion more than the REBA posture assessment, investigated the musculoskeletal health and was more worker-oriented.