Comparison of Ergonomic Evaluation Tools (AULA and RULA) for Assessing Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) in Oyster Mushroom Farmers (Case Study of Oyster Mushroom Farms in Lempake Samarinda)

Abstract

Agriculture is a challenging sector in which farmers have the potential risk of musculoskeletal disorders, since their working conditions require awkward static postures. Likewise, oyster mushroom farmers suffered from musculoskeletal disorders in most agricultural work. Oyster mushroom cultivation activities mostly use the upper extremities segments and involve stooped posture and repetitive manual tasks. Therefore, these activities trigger the occurrence of MSD among oyster mushroom farmers. AULA (Agricultural Upper Limb Assessment) and RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) are two techniques frequently used to evaluate the MSD potential risks in upper limb burdening works. This study compares these two ergonomic evaluation tools, i.e., AULA and RULA, to find the most suitable method for assessing WMSD in oyster mushroom farmers. The comparison was conducted based on experts' evaluation of 26 activities in the oyster mushroom cultivation process. Twelve experienced experts in ergonomics, safety and health, and agriculture were involved in this study, and four oyster mushroom farms in Lempake Samarinda were observed to identify the activities. Hit rate, quadratic weighted κ, and independent t-test were applied to compare the two methods. The result of the hit rate showed that the hit rate of AULA (average: 73%) was higher than RULA (average: 62%). The quadratic weighted of Kappa analysis also showed that the Kappa value of AULA (0.483) was higher than RULA (0.261). Based on these results, AULA has a moderate level of agreement while RULA has an acceptable level of agreement. Furthermore, the independent t-test test showed the scores of AULA and RULA were not significantly different from experts; as well as AULA score was not significantly different from RULA. These findings concluded that the AULA method would be the appropriate tool to evaluate the WMSDs of oyster mushroom farmers in Samarinda.