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Risks, solutions and implementation of a participatory ergonomic intervention in 16 day nurseries: A process
Maja Schønheyder1, Mikala Utzon Dietz2, Kathrine Greby Schmidt1
1The National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Lersø Parkalle 105, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Insights
Childcare workers need interventions to reduce physical demands, preventing ill health. Participatory ergonomic interventions addressing physical, organizational, and psychosocial factors are effective for improving worker well-being.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health
- Ergonomics
- Public Health
Background:
- Childcare work involves significant physical demands, increasing the risk of ill health among workers.
- Evidence-based initiatives are needed to reduce physical work demands and promote sustained childcare provision.
- Musculoskeletal pain-related sickness absence is a concern in the childcare sector.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate risk factors and solutions perceived by childcare workers.
- To evaluate the implementation of a participatory ergonomic intervention in day nurseries.
- To identify factors influencing intervention success in reducing physical work demands.
Main Methods:
- A process evaluation alongside a 20-week, two-arm, cluster-randomized controlled trial in 16 day nurseries.
- Childcare workers identified physical, organizational, and psychosocial risk factors and proposed solutions.
- Intervention implementation was assessed via action plan success, workshop delivery, fidelity, participation, exposure, responsiveness, and overall implementation scores.
Main Results:
- Physical factors were the most perceived risk factors (70%) and suggested solutions (61%).
- Organizational (16%) and psychosocial (13%) risk factors were also identified, with similar solution proportions.
- High implementation success (51%) was observed for action plans; workshops had 83% fidelity. Overall implementation varied (47%).
Conclusions:
- Complex, participatory ergonomic interventions should address physical, organizational, and psychosocial factors for effectiveness.
- Intervention timing influenced implementation scores, highlighting the importance of tailored delivery.
- Findings support the development of comprehensive strategies to mitigate health risks in childcare work.
Abstract:
More evidence-based initiatives to reduce physical work demands during childcare work to prevent ill health and promote the ability to care for the children among childcare workers are needed. In a process evaluation performed alongside a two-arm, cluster-randomized study with a waiting-list control among 16 day nurseries lasting 20-weeks that significantly reduced musculoskeletal pain-related sickness absence we investigated 1) risk factors and solutions perceived by the childcare workers, and 2) implementation of the intervention. Most of the perceived risk factors were categorized as physical (70 %) with most of the suggested solutions also being categorized as physical (61 %). The remaining risk factors were categorized as organizational risk factors (16 %) and psychosocial risk factors (13 %). The remaining solutions were distributed almost equally between the organizational (20 %) and psychosocial categories (19 %). About half (51 %) of the action plans showed high implementation success. Of 16 workshops, 100 % were delivered with a fidelity of 83 %. Average participation, exposure, responsiveness and implementation were 68 %, 56 %, 83 % and 47 %. The implementation score differed for timing of intervention but not for nursery characteristics. This study showed that complex and diverse participatory ergonomic interventions should focus on physical, organizational and psychosocial factors to have a positive effect.
