Objective: Owing to the space limit of the semiconductor fabrication cleaning room, the standing VDT workstation equipped with laptop was usually used for entering wafer processing data. Since the screen of laptop PC was directly connected to the keyboard, larger gaze angle to monitor center and downwards gaze angle than those recommended by ergonomics guides were found. Therefore, this experiment aimed to evaluate the effects of increasing laptop stand tilt on the posture and muscular load of the upper extremity for users of standing VDT workstation. Methods: Twenty-four female university students participated in the study. A self-designed electrically adjustable standing VDT workstation was employed. The explored independent factors including monitor size of laptop (12 and 14 inch), initial setting of workstation height, and initial laptop stand tilt setting (preferred high to low, flat, preferred low to high). Electromyogram and dynamic single/two-axis goniometers were utilized to evaluate the associated muscular loads and postural settings for the upper extremity. Each subjects completed 12 sessions of experiments which were completely randomized to reduce fatigue and learning effects. The experiment took about 2.5 hours totally for each subject. Besides, a questionnaire was used to evaluate the subjective discomfort after each session of experiment. Results: Results of the repeated measures ANOVAs showed that the preferred laptop stand tilt was significantly affected by the initial laptop stand tilt settings (F=26.018, p
關聯:
International Conference of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational M
