ABSTRACTS
Evaluation of Ergonomic Risk to Prehospital Personnel in Cuenca, EcuadorAuthor: Richard Santiago Cobos Lazo | | Associate Authors:
Introduction According to recent estimates published by the International Labor Organization (ILO), 2.78 million workers die each year from occupational diseases and accidents at work, of which 2.4 million are associated with illnesses. However, 374 million workers suffer from nonfatal work accidents. Occupational diseases declared by the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS) were 813 in 2015, in relation to the 23,547 occupational accidents declared that same year, without counting occupational accidents and illnesses that have not been declared due to various factors such as the informality of the work, including fear of retaliation from the employer. For this study, it was hypothesized that the activities carried out by paramedics in trauma emergency care are directly associated with musculoskeletal disorders. Objective: Method: We performed an observational-descriptive study focused on the personnel who work in the prehospital care area of the IESS. At the time of the study, 56 paramedics worked in 5 units (ambulances). These personnel worked in rotating shifts of 12 hours a day and 12 hours a night and then went out on their days off. The evaluation was carried out through the application of several methods, one qualitative (Nordic questionnaire) and three quantitative (Mapo Reba, Owas Methods), specifically focused on the activities determined in trauma emergencies. The number of necessary evaluations, for a history of annual care of 1,400 per year is 300 evaluations maintaining a Z = 95%, p = 0.5, c = 5%. The data tabulation showed results that the ergonomic risk level is above 85%, which means a risk between high and very high where the most common conditions are neck and spine at 28%, followed by shoulder injuries at 21%. A value of 3.43 was determined by calculating the relative risk, referring to this result as a high strength of association. This allows us to indicate that the activities carried out by paramedics in general for trauma care are directly associated with musculoskeletal disorders.
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