Background: Assessing the physical demands of the heterogeneous jobs in hospitals requires appropriate and validated assessment
methodologies.
Methods: As part of an integrated assessment, we adapted Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), using it in a work sampling mode
facilitated by a hand-held personal digital assistant, expanding it with selected items from the UC Computer Use Checklist, and
developed a scoring algorithm for ergonomics risk factors for the upper (UB) and lower body (LB).
Results: The inter-rater reliability kappa was 0.54 for UB and 0.66 for LB. The scoring algorithm demonstrated significant variation
(ANOVApo0:05) by occupation in anticipated directions (administrators ranked lowest; support staff ranked highest on both scores).
A supplemental self-assessment measure of spinal loading correlated with high strain LB scores (r¼0:30;po0:001).
Conclusion: We developed and validated a scoring algorithm incorporating a revised REBA schema adding computer use items,
appropriate for ergonomics assessment across a range of hospital jobs.
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