Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Disorders
The goal of ergonomics (i.e. the scientific study of people at work) is to prevent soft tissue injuries and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) caused by sudden or sustained exposure to force, vibration, repetitive motion, and awkward posture. To create an ergonomically sound work environment, NIOSH ergonomists and industrial hygienists recommend designing tasks, work spaces, controls, displays, tools, lighting, and equipment to fit employee’s physical capabilities and limitations. On this page you will find the Musculoskeletal Health Program’s ergonomic recommendations and musculoskeletal health-related research.
NIOSHTIC-2 search results on Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Disorders NIOSHTIC-2 is a searchable bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and journal articles supported in whole or in part by NIOSH.
Agriculture
- Conference Proceedings: Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders for Children and Adolescents Working in Agriculture
- Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Farm Workers
- Development and Evaluation of Ergonomic Interventions for Bucket Handling on Farms
Construction
- Inclination angles during cross-slope roof walking
- Assessing work-related risk factors for musculoskeletal knee disorders in construction roofing tasks
- Fusing imperfect experimental data for risk assessment of musculoskeletal disorders in construction using canonical polyadic decomposition
- Lower extremity kinematics of cross-slope roof walking
- Identifying Potentially Risky Phases Leading to Knee Musculoskeletal Disorders during Shingle Installation Operations
- Kneeling trunk kinematics during simulated sloped roof shingle installation
- Effects of Working Posture and Roof Slope on Activation of Lower Limb Muscles during Shingle Installation
- Simple Solutions for Home Building Workers: A Basic Guide for Preventing Material Handling Injuries
- Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Construction Workers
- Proceedings of a Meeting to Explore the Use of Ergonomics Interventions for the Mechanical and Electrical Trades
- Controlling the Ergonomic Hazards of Wiring Tasks for Household Appliances
- Exoskeletons in Construction: Will They Reduce or Create Hazards?
Healthcare
- NIOSH Hazard Review: Occupational Hazards in Home Healthcare
- Safe Patient Handling Training for Schools of Nursing. Curricular Materials
- State of the Sector| Healthcare and Social Assistance: Identification of Research Opportunities for the Next Decade of NORA
- Preventing Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Sonography
- Safe Lifting and Movement of Nursing Home Residents
- Ergonomic evaluation of ten single-channel pipettes
- An Investigation of Hand Forces and Postures for using Selected Mechanical Pipettes
Manufacturing
- Participatory Ergonomic Interventions in Meatpacking Plants
- A Strategy for Industrial Power Hand Tool Ergonomic Research—Design, Selection, Installation, and Use in Automotive Manufacturing
- Evaluation of a Workplace Exercise Program for Control of Shoulder Disorders in Overhead Assembly Work
Mining
- Ergonomics Processes: Implementation Guide and Tools for the Mining Industry
- Reducing Low Back Pain and Disability in Mining
- Ergonomics and Risk Factor Awareness Training for Miners
- Ergonomics and Mining: Charting a Path to a Safer Workplace
Transportation
- Reducing Musculoskeletal Disorders among Airport Baggage Screeners and Handlers
- Bag Handling Assist Controls for Airport Screening Processes
- Ergonomic Evaluation of Loaders and Hashers at a Postal Processing and Distribution Center
Wholesale and Retail Trade
Programs
- Elements of Ergonomics Programs: A Primer Based on Workplace Evaluations of Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Ergonomics: Effective Workplace Practices and Programs
Manual Material Handling (MMH)
- Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation (RNLE) mobile app: NLE Calc
- Applications Manual for the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation
- Ergonomic Guidelines for Manual Material Handling
- Provisional Recommended Weight Limits for Manual Lifting During Pregnancy
- Clinical Guidelines for Occupational Lifting in Pregnancy: Evidence Summary and Provisional Recommendations
- Variable Lifting Index (VLI): A New Method for Evaluating Variable Lifting Tasks
Posture
- Inclination angles during cross-slope roof walking
- Assessing work-related risk factors for musculoskeletal knee disorders in construction roofing tasks
- Fusing imperfect experimental data for risk assessment of musculoskeletal disorders in construction using canonical polyadic decomposition
- Lower extremity kinematics of cross-slope roof walking
- Identifying Potentially Risky Phases Leading to Knee Musculoskeletal Disorders during Shingle Installation Operations
- Kneeling trunk kinematics during simulated sloped roof shingle installation
- Effects of Working Posture and Roof Slope on Activation of Lower Limb Muscles during Shingle Installation
- Observation-Based Posture Assessment: Review of Current Practice and Recommendations for Improvement
- Practical Demonstrations of Ergonomic Principles
- Development of Human Posture Simulation Method for Assessing Posture Angles and Spinal Loads
Vibration and hand tools
- Proceedings of the Second American Conference on Human Vibration
- Proceedings of the First American Conference on Human Vibration
- Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Exposure to Hand-Arm Vibration
- Vibration Syndrome
- Easy Ergonomics: A Guide to Selecting Non-Powered Hand Tools
- Vibration Transmitted from Human Hands to Upper Arm, Shoulder, Back, Neck, and Head
- Straight Talk About Nail Gun Safety
- Nail Gun Safety: A Guide for Construction Workers
- Serious Injury and Fatality Investigations involving Pneumatic Nail Guns, 1985-2012
- Pneumatic Nail Guns: Revisiting Trigger Recommendations
Keyboards and video display
Literature reviews
- Worker Health eChartbook: Musculoskeletal Conditions—Magnitude and Trend
- Musculoskeletal Disorders and Workplace Factors: A Critical Review of Epidemiologic Evidence for Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders of the Neck, Upper Extremity, and Low Back
- Evaluation of the Impact of the Revised National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Lifting Equation
- Cumulative Trauma Disorders in the Workplace Bibliography
- Selected Topics in Surface Electromyography for Use in the Occupational Setting: Expert Perspective
- Musculoskeletal Disorders and the Workplace: Low Back and Upper Extremities
- Vibration and Ergonomic Exposures Associated With Musculoskeletal Disorders of the Shoulder and Neck
- Distributions of job physical exposure data in a pooled study of low back pain prospective cohorts
- Further Trends in Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Comparison of Risk Factors for Symptoms Using Quality of Work Life Data From the 2002, 2006, and 2010 General Social Survey
- Evidence of Health Risks Associated with Prolonged Standing at Work and Intervention Effectiveness
- Workplace Exercise for Control of Occupational Neck/Shoulder Disorders: A Review of Prospective Studies
- Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) Program
- Low back pain prevalence and related workplace psychosocial risk factors: a study using data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey
Lower back and back belts
- Summary of NIOSH Back Belt Studies
- No Evidence that Back Belts Reduce Injury Seen in Landmark NIOSH Study of Retail Users
- A Prospective Study of Back Belts for Prevention of Back Pain and Injury
- Back Belts—Do they Prevent Injury
- Workplace Use of Back Belts—Review and Recommendations
- Efficacy of the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation to Predict Risk of Low-Back Pain Associated with Manual Lifting: A One-Year Prospective Study
- The NIOSH Lifting Equation and Low-Back Pain, Part 1: Association with Low-Back Pain in the Backworks Prospective Cohort Study
- The NIOSH Lifting Equation and Low-Back Pain, Part 2: Association with Seeking Care in the BackWorks Prospective Cohort Study
- Low-Back Pain Ratings for Lifetime, 1-month Period, and Point Prevalences in a Large Occupational Population
- Cumulative Spine Loading and Clinically Meaningful Declines in Low Back Function
- Prevalence of low back pain, seeking medical care, and lost time due to low back pain among manual material handling workers in the United States
- Non-Chemical Risk Assessment for Lifting and Low Back Pain Based on Bayesian Threshold Models
- Are Workers Who Leave a Job Exposed to Similar Physical Demands as Workers Who Develop Clinically Meaningful Declines in Low Back Function
Upper extremities
- A Prospective Study of Musculoskeletal Outcomes Among Manufacturing Workers: I. Effects of Physical Risk Factors
- A Prospective Study of Musculoskeletal Outcomes Among Manufacturing Workers: II. Effects of Psychosocial Stress and Work Organization Factors
- The Strain Index and ACGIH TLV for HAL: Risk of Trigger Digit in the WISTAH Prospective Cohort
- Evaluation of Alternate Category Structures for the Strain Index: An Empirical Analysis
- The Impact of Posture on Wrist Tendonitis Among Blue-Collar Workers: The San Francisco Study
- The Association Between Combination of Hand Force and Forearm Posture and Incidence of Lateral Epicondylitis in a Working Population
- The CONSTANCES job exposure matrix based on self-reported exposure to physical risk factors: development and evaluation
- Impacts of Differences in Epidemiological Case Definitions on Prevalence for Upper-Extremity Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Upper Limb Musculoskeletal Disorder Consortium
- Using job-title-based physical exposures From O*NET in an epidemiological study of carpal tunnel syndrome
Last Reviewed: February 28, 2018