Developing a Decision Aid Tool for selecting pen-paper observational ergonomics techniques: a quasi-experimental...

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Ergonomics
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• Ergonomic risk assessment reliability is often compromised by errors in observational technique selection.
• A new Decision Aid Tool (DAT) was developed to mitigate these technique selection errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate the efficacy of the Decision Aid Tool (DAT) in reducing errors in pen-paper observational technique selection for ergonomic risk assessment.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental before-and-after study was conducted in three phases.
• Phase 1: Assessed technique selection skills using 20 job videos.
• Phase 2: Designed the DAT based on observational techniques.
• Phase 3: Evaluated DAT efficacy with 115 occupational health specialists.

Main Results:

• Initially, 62% of participants erred in technique selection.
• Mean scores improved from 11.4 ± 6.59 to 39.01 ± 1.89 after using DAT.
• Post-DAT, 97.5% of participants correctly selected task techniques, showing a significant improvement.

Conclusions:

• The Decision Aid Tool (DAT) demonstrated efficacy in a quasi-experimental study.
• DAT use substantially enhances participants' ability to select correct observational techniques.
• The DAT is a valuable resource for practitioners to accurately choose pen-paper observational techniques based on assessment goals, body areas, and task characteristics.