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© Kamla-Raj 2004 J. Hum. Ecol., 15(2): 85-89 (2004)
Ergonomic Assessment of Performing Selected Personal and Room Care Related Activities by Elderly Females and Technologies to Reduce Them
P. Sandhu and R. Bakhshi
Department of Family Resource Management, PAU, Ludhiana, Punjab, India Corresponding Author: P. Sandhu, E- mail: spushi@rediffmail.com,
Keywords Cardiac Cost of Work. Physiological Cost of Work
Abstract Ergonomic assessment of performing selected personal and room care related activities in terms of heart rate and physiological cost of work was made on twenty elderly women. These activities were: filling water in water bottle; opening medicine bottle; cutting and sorting out pills; using toilet; bathing; dressing; making bed; dusting and arranging items. Results revealed that heart rate was found to be maximum when they made bed (105.11 beats/min); followed by dusting (102.79 beats/min). Maximum percentage reduction (86.46 percent) was observed for use of pill cutter and weekly pill box in cutting and sorting out of medicines, followed by opening medicine bottle with bottle opener, making bed and dusting with 52.71, 46.94 and 46.52 percent respectively. Maximum physiological cost of work (27.45 beats/min) was observed for dusting in the normal fashion. Maximum percentage reduction of physiological cost of work was observed while filling water bottle using water bottle holder followed by making bed using improved techniques (88.13 and 67.73 percent respectively). Maximum overall percentage reduction (70.85 percent) in assessed ergonomic costs was observed for using pill cutter and weekly pill box followed by 63.55 percent reduction brought about by use of water bottle holder, by making bed with new technology (57.28 percent), and dusting with use of static duster (52.81 percent).
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