Occupational health hazard and ergonomic evaluation in Thai-massage workers: A pilot study

Thai-massage workers are exposed to various occupational health hazards, but ergonomic hazard is themost obvious and may cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders. A walkthrough survey was conducted to observethe work process including materials used, to identify all types of occupational health hazards in a Thai-massageprofession. Two common types of massages, Thai massage (body massage) and foot massage, performed by oneThai-massage worker were observed. It was found that the number of force exertions per case was 866 in a60-minute Thai massage session and 1,449 in a 50-minute foot massage session. The massage worker exerted forcemost frequently through his thumbs in both Thai massage and foot massage, and next was through the heels ofhis hands and knuckles in Thai massage and foot massage, respectively. The kneeling together with bending forwardposture constitutes three quarters of the body massage duration. Ergonomic evaluation of Thai massage and footmassage was done using REBA and ACGIH-HAL as evaluation tools. The kneeling (and bending forward) workingposture in performing a Thai massage and the sitting (and squeezing) working posture in performing a foot massagewere identified to be high-risk working postures. However, hand activities in Thai massage as well as foot massagedid not exceed the threshold limit value (TLV).