Adeyemi, H O; Adejuyigbe, S B; Ismaila, S O and Adekoya, A F (2015) Low back pain assessment application for construction workers. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 13(3), pp. 419-434.
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an expert system capable of assessing risk associated with manual lifting in construction tasks and proffer some first aid advices which are comparable with those obtainable from human experts. Design/methodology/approach – The expert system, musculoskeletal disorders – risk evaluation expert system (MSDs-REES), used Microsoft.Net C# programming language to write the algorithm of the fuzzy inference system with variables load, posture and frequency of lift as inputs and risk of low back pain as the output. The algorithm of the inference engine applied sets of rules to generate the output variable in crisp value. Findings – The result of validation, between the human experts' calculated risk values and MSDs-REES-predicted risk values, indicated a correlation coefficient of 0.87. Between the predicted risk values generated using MSDs-REES and the existing package (MATLAB version 7.8), there was a strong positive relationship statistically with correlation coefficient of 0.97. Originality/value – The study provided a very simple expert system which has the ability to provide some medical-related injury prevention advice and first aid information for injury management, giving it a unique attribute over the existing applications.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | expert system; human factors; mechanical engineering; risk assessment; construction safety; fuzzy theory; safety issues; back pain; lifting |
| Index terms: | injury, fuzzy inference, safety issue, methodology, programming, validation, expert system, lifting, back pain, construction safety, human factor, fuzzy theory, package, risk assessment, construction worker, prevention, mechanical engineering |
| Subjects: | research methods, professional development, financial risk, health conditions and diseases, occupational health and safety management, data management, environmental health, decision-making and optimization, mechanical systems, practitioner, programming, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Sustainability, Procurement, Health and Safety, Cost Management, Information Management, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here