Discomfort assessment

Are office health related complaints reducing in your organisation? Do you have a good early reporting system?

One of the best indicators of a successful office ergonomics programme is a reduction in subjective pain symptoms and a reduction in the cost of injuries and discomfort problems. Preventing lost work time incidents and minimising injury management costs relies heavily on early reporting to enable speedy intervention as soon as a problem surfaces.

Online Self-Assessment Questionnaire

Wellnomics Discomfort Assessment uses a questionnaire to provide both early reporting and baseline information on symptom levels within your organisation. The questionnaire uses the proven Visual Analogue Pain Scale (VAS)¹ to assess upper body symptoms and eyestrain.

Areas covered by the Assessment include any prior history of injury as well as location, frequency and severity of any current symptoms. It also considers the effects on work activities or lost work time due to discomfort.

Individual Risk Report

Following the completion of the assessment each employee will receive a report summarising the discomfort reported with advice on the appropriate actions needed to help relieve the discomfort. For example, employees may be advised to adjust their posture or workstation to reduce neck pain, or change their mouse use to reduce forearm pain.

Management Reports

Management reports identify employees with high symptoms for whom early intervention is required. The reports also provide baseline information on current level of symptoms across your organisation and pinpoint the body areas where most symptoms are occurring. This may assist in identifying trends which need further investigation or intervention.

Departments with the most complaints are clearly identified, and all changes in symptom levels are tracked over successive assessments.

Risk Factors Assessed

The Discomfort Assessment is part of the Wellnomics Risk Management solution. Data from this assessment is combined with other assessments (such as Discomfort, Psychosocial Factors, and Measurement of Computer Use and Breaks) to calculate overall risk levels for employees and the organisation.

¹The VAS has a large body of evidence supporting its validity and reliability for measuring pain intensity. For a detailed description of the VAS see Turk, D.C and Melzack, R. (1992) Handbook of Pain Assessment, New York, Guilford Press.