Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ramalho-Pires de Almeida, Maria Ángela
• Ábalos-Medina, Gracia Maria
• Villaverde-Gutiérrez, Carmen
• Gomes-de Lucena, Neide Maria
• Ferreira-Tomaz, Alecsandra
• Perez-Marmol, Jose Manuel

Titel

Effects of an ergonomic program on the quality of life and work performance of university staff with physical disabilities: A clinical trial with three-month follow-up

Ist Teil von

• Disability and health journal, 2019-01, Vol.12 (1), p.58-64

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Problems related to physical disability may have an extremely negative impact in the work environment, reducing productivity and contributing to health problems and a worsening quality of life. To assess the effects of an ergonomic intervention program on the quality of life and the work performance of people with physical disabilities working in a university environment. A pilot clinical trial with three-month follow-up was conducted at the Physiotherapy Clinic of the Federal University of Paraíba (Brazil). Eight workers at the university took part in an ergonomic adjustment (using ErgoDis/IBV software) and physiotherapy program at their workplace for twelve weeks, in two 60-min sessions per week. The measuring instruments used were the WHOQoL-BREF questionnaire for quality of life and the Work Ability Index for work ability. A repeated-measures ANOVA analysis and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were also performed. Significant intra-group changes were observed in the QoL subscales for the physical dimension (F = 5.487, p = 0.017) and the environment dimension (F = 7.510, p = 0.006). The post-treatment analysis revealed significant changes for both the physical dimension (Z = -2.552, p = 0.011) and the environment dimension (Z = -2.201, p = 0.028). After the three-month follow-up period, only the environment dimension recorded a significant change (Z = -1.965, p = 0.049). The effect sizes were large. Regarding work ability, the repeated-measures ANOVA analysis showed a significant time effect (F = 5.067, p = 0.022), with large pre-post treatment improvement (Z = -2.555, p = 0.011, d = 0.914). The program based on ergonomic and physiotherapy program greatly enhanced the subjects' quality of life and work ability.