Musculoskeletal health and safety of aged workers in manual handling works

Recent statistics and reports indicate that considerable size of workforce in various industries is aged around and above 60 years. Although the physical capacities are generally depleting with ageing, the physical demands of work in most jobs are not changing. Moreover, enhanced risks of the aged workers engaged in manual handling (MH) tasks are observed as serious concerns, especially with respect to musculoskeletal health and safety aspects. Hence, our ongoing research is focused on: (a) identifying hazardous manual handling tasks in various industries and (b) mapping the sources or root causes of risks of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) to (c) develop a decision support framework for `ageing-friendly' job/workplace design and redesign. Main research methods include focused literature review, consultations with domain experts, questionnaire surveys and interviews. In this paper, some basic findings/ discussions regarding MH related MSD and a conceptual model for job redesign are presented.