The purpose of this study was to objectively quantify and evaluate the ergonomic risk of clinical physiotherapy practices and evaluate physiotherapists for work-related musculoskeletal disorders and pain.
Twenty-nine physiotherapists in the rehabilitation department of a large-scale tertiary hospital were recruited in this study. The sampling period lasted for 2 weeks for each physiotherapist and interval sampling was adopted to avoid duplication of cases. Therapist posture during physiotherapy was captured, tracked and analyzed in real time using structured light sensors with an automated assessment program. The quantification of ergonomic risk was based on REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) and the RPE (perceived physical exertion) scores of the therapists were recorded before and after treatment, respectively.
Two hundred and twenty-four clinical physiotherapy cases were recorded, of which 49.6% were high risk and 33% were very high risk, with none of the cases presenting negligible risk. The positioning (
Our study creates an automatic tool to assess the ergonomic risk of physiotherapy practices and demonstrates unacceptable ergonomic risk in common practices. The high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and pains recommends that rehabilitation assistance devices should be optimized and standard ergonomic courses should be included in physiotherapists' training plans.