Designing the Instruction of the Niosh Lower Back Model
Designing the Instruction of the NIOSH Lower Back Model Alaina Ostroff Hofstra University
Introduction
This project was designed as an instruction teaching capsule for the NIOSH Lifting Equation which models forces in the lower back. This is a technical topic and was designed to teach a broad group of people, such as engineering students, as a tool to instruct the NIOSH back model. There are five elements that make up the “NIOSH Lower Back Model” which include: a narrated PowerPoint presentation, multiplier tables/job analysis worksheet/excel calculator program, didactic handouts to aid in teaching, homework exercises, and a quiz.
Lower back injuries are the most common injuries occurring in the workplace. However, they can often be prevented if proper training is implemented. The NIOSH lifting equation is an equation that was made specifically for this reason. Even though this equation was designed for workplace training environments, injuries still happen. This can often be attributed to a lack of proper teaching techniques of which involve biomechanical, psychophysical, and physiological effects. Injuries usually occur at the L5/S1 vertebrae in the lower spine. This is mainly due to lifting too much weight and/or lifting too quickly. In addition, every year over 2.5 million low back injuries and 1.2 million disabling low back injuries occur in the Unites States. Lower back pain was the diagnosis of 10 percent of all chronic health conditions [3, 4]. An average of 28.6 workdays was lost per 100 workers with low back pain [3, 4]. The overall cost for low back pain has been estimated to be between $4.6 and $11 billion dollars per year [4]. This cost represents a tremendous loss in productivity, as measured in dollar output per worker, and extremely high levels of human suffering. For this reason, The NIOSH Lifting equation is important for engineers to learn because they design systems on it to prevent injury in the
Introduction
This project was designed as an instruction teaching capsule for the NIOSH Lifting Equation which models forces in the lower back. This is a technical topic and was designed to teach a broad group of people, such as engineering students, as a tool to instruct the NIOSH back model. There are five elements that make up the “NIOSH Lower Back Model” which include: a narrated PowerPoint presentation, multiplier tables/job analysis worksheet/excel calculator program, didactic handouts to aid in teaching, homework exercises, and a quiz.
Lower back injuries are the most common injuries occurring in the workplace. However, they can often be prevented if proper training is implemented. The NIOSH lifting equation is an equation that was made specifically for this reason. Even though this equation was designed for workplace training environments, injuries still happen. This can often be attributed to a lack of proper teaching techniques of which involve biomechanical, psychophysical, and physiological effects. Injuries usually occur at the L5/S1 vertebrae in the lower spine. This is mainly due to lifting too much weight and/or lifting too quickly. In addition, every year over 2.5 million low back injuries and 1.2 million disabling low back injuries occur in the Unites States. Lower back pain was the diagnosis of 10 percent of all chronic health conditions [3, 4]. An average of 28.6 workdays was lost per 100 workers with low back pain [3, 4]. The overall cost for low back pain has been estimated to be between $4.6 and $11 billion dollars per year [4]. This cost represents a tremendous loss in productivity, as measured in dollar output per worker, and extremely high levels of human suffering. For this reason, The NIOSH Lifting equation is important for engineers to learn because they design systems on it to prevent injury in the
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