Pangoniometry is a modern method of physiological and hygienic assessment of the severity of work according to the indicator "Working posture"

Introduction. The development of occupational health is largely ensured by its comprehensive approach to the study of the «Man–machine–production environment» system, which includes an assessment of many factors characterizing the production system in the action shaping working conditions. However, in the concept of «Working conditions» they are «a set of factors in the working environment and the labor process that influence the performance and health of the employee», that is, they are interpreted statically (as a set...) and passively — without the participation of the employee in shaping the conditions of his work. This is probably why the working conditions are being investigated dose exposures of material factors that do not contribute to the identification of their primary connection with a working person — a connection that forms the result of the actual interaction of material factors with the animate at a certain time in a given workplace, the identification of which is available only to effective exposures of material factors — expositions of a higher level of quality, claiming to have the appropriate quality of rationing – comprehensive, universal, with an expanded scale of assessment of working conditions, and for the first time opens up the possibility of their identification, depending on the state and dynamics of the employee’s health.

In this study, scientists measured and evaluated the effective exposure of one of the most difficult to determine and evaluate the characteristics of the labor severity factor — the «Working posture». The experts gave an assessment in comparison with the traditionally defined basic exposures of the working position in the studied labor processes.

The study aims to increase the accuracy of the hygienic assessment of the severity of work according to the indicator «Working posture» using a modern technique — pangoniometry.

Materials and methods. In three groups of workers (2 car drivers, 10 doctors of clinical laboratory diagnostics and 30 electricians on duty), specialists applied three different methods of studying the working posture, two of which are widely represented in the normative and methodological and scientific literature, and the third was developed by the authors and was called pangoniometric. This technique consisted in drawing up diagrams of working poses, which are the material for measuring with the help of a protractor the limits of fluctuations in the degrees of motion of various parts of the locomotor system in joints. The researchers also measured the actual limits of fluctuations in angular degrees, determined that they exceeded the known optimal limits in areas of increased stress on the joint and the time of its operation in these areas. The authors have carried out statistical processing of the obtained material using the Student’s t-test and the Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results. It was found that the indicator of the effective effect of the forms of working poses obtained by the method of pangoniometry significantly, by 1–2 classes and degrees of harmfulness, clarifies the assessment of the severity of labor in comparison with the indicator of the dose exposure of working poses.

Limitation. There were a small number of car drivers studied — two people.

Conclusion. Pangoniometry is a method of physiological-hygienic and physiological-clinical comprehensive research and assessment of the impact of forms of working postures on health in the labor process. The method clarifies the hygienic assessment of the severity of work according to the indicator «Working posture» by identifying the primary relationship between the load on the joints and their working tension, materializing this important relationship in diagnostic and preventive terms in the indicator of the effective effect of the goniometric index of the working posture. In an indicator that has the property of being a guide to managing working conditions in the workplace by openly modeling elements of not only the material factor, but also the animate interacting with it, represented by the properties of the employee’s body.

Ethics. In preparing the article, the authors were guided by the Ethical principles of medical research set out in the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association in the latest edition.

Contribution:
Ustyantsev S.L. — methodology development, research design, data collection and processing, text writing, editing;
Protasova O.S. — methodology development, research design, data collection and processing, text writing, editing;
Kishka O.V. — methodology development, research design, data collection and processing, text writing, editing;
Danilova M.A. — data collection, processing, formulation of conclusions;
Lipanova L.L. — methodology development, research design, data collection and processing, text writing, editing;
Nasybullina G.M. — methodology development, research design, data collection and processing, text writing, editing;
Kim A.V. — making diagrams of the forms of working poses, their description, hygienic assessment, writing the text;
Reshetova S.V. — making diagrams of the forms of working poses, their description, hygienic assessment, writing the text;
Kutlaeva Yu.Yu. — data collection, processing, formulation of conclusions;
Ankudinova A.V. — data collection, processing, formulation of conclusions;
Babikova A.S. — making sketches of the forms of working poses, their description, hygienic assessment, writing the text;
Popova O.S. — making diagrams of the forms of working poses, their description, hygienic assessment, writing the text;
Khachaturova N.L. — making diagrams of the forms of working poses, their description, hygienic assessment, writing the text;
Malkova T.G. — making diagrams of the forms of working poses, their description, hygienic assessment, writing the text;
Bem L.N. — making diagrams of the forms of working poses, their description, hygienic assessment, writing the text.

Funding. The study had no funding.

Conflict of interests. The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Received: 08.07.2024 / Accepted: 31.07.2024 / Published: 15.09.2024

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