title: Assessment of the relationship between physical working conditions and different levels of work ability.
abstract: Early leaving of workplace by work forces is one of the fundamental problems worldwide. Maintenance and enhancement of employees work ability are important for raising productivity. This study investigated the relationship between work ability index and physical working conditions and was carried out in 2013 on 641 workers at a manufacturing plant in Tehran. Work ability was assessed by the questionnaire of work ability index and the participants were classified into four work ability groups of poor, moderate, good, and excellent. Physical working conditions were evaluated by the MUSIC-Norrtalje questionnaire and the participants were classified into two groups with proper and poor physical working conditions. The mean score of work ability questionnaire was 42.40; and 2.5% (16 persons), 9.2% (59 persons), 38.2% (245 persons), and 50.1% (321 persons) of the participants were in poor, moderate, good, and excellent work ability groups, respectively. The mean score of physical working conditions questionnaire was 20.06. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that even after adjusting the confounding variables, a significant correlation existed between work ability and physical working conditions (p < 0.05). According to the results of this study, there may be a correlation between physical working conditions such as awkward postures, repetitive movements, load lifting, exposure to whole body vibration and so on with work ability. Therefore it seems that enhancement of the quality of physical working conditions may increase work ability.
authors.forename: Mirsaeed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Attarchi
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghaffari
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abdi
authors.forename: Elham
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mirzamohammadi
authors.forename: Seyed Mohammad
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Seyedmehdi
authors.forename: Farzaneh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rahimpour
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fazlalizadeh
authors.affiliation: 1 Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Center (BASIR),Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2 Occupational Medicine Department, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran,Iran. sabermohammadi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Saber
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D012090:Cumulative Trauma Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D004777:Environment; D015444:Exercise; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D017770:Lifting; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011187:Posture; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D014732:Vibration; D014937:Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017132:Workplace / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*