Low back pain reduction for the rubber tapping farmers during rubber tapping process in Chairach sub-district Bangsaphannoi district Prachuapkhirikhan province
Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to reduce low-back pain for tappers in Chairach
sub-district, Bangsaphannoi district, Prachuapkhirikhan province. The data was collected
from health check list of 52 tappers. It was found that 30 of 52 tappers or 58% have
low-back pain problem and AI value of this group was average of 3.8, so 5 persons of
this group was selected for study to reduce low-back pain. Using RULA with the tapping
of high, middle, and low levels, the points were 6.4, 6.8, and 6.8, respectively. The EMG
values for high, middle, and low levels of tapping for left and right infraspinatus muscle
were (25.5, 34.0), (45.4, 52.1) and (55.3, 60.0) μV., respectively and for left and right
erector spinae muscle were (24.9, 27.1), (38.3, 46.2) and (45.3, 53.2) μV., respectively.
After analysing the situation above, the cause of the problems was the working posture.
Therefore, the improved posture was to bend the knees instead of bending the back.
After the improvement the values of AI was average of 2.6, the RULA values of the same
measurement were 2.2, 2.4 and 2.8, respectively. Also the EMG values for the same as
previous measurement infraspinatus muscle were (20.2, 26.4), (23.7, 30.0) and (27.0,
31.8) μV., respectively, and (17.9, 21.6), (20.9, 25.5) and (23.4, 28.6) μV., respectively
for the erector spinae. After comparing the averaged values of the parameters before
and after the improvement using pair t-test, it was found that AI, RULA, and EMG values
were reduced significantly (P<0.05).