Work Posture and Musculoskeletal Complaints among Furniture Workers: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstrak

Background: Furniture manufacturing involves repetitive movements, manual handling, and sustained working postures that may contribute to musculoskeletal complaints. Ergonomic assessment may help identify work activities requiring corrective action.
Objective: To examine the associations of work posture risk assessed using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), age, and gender with musculoskeletal complaints among furniture workers.
Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study included 52 furniture workers in Makassar, Indonesia, from March to April 2026. Work posture was assessed using RULA or REBA according to production tasks, and musculoskeletal complaints were assessed using the Nordic Body Map. Associations between categorical variables were analyzed using Pearson chi square or Fisher exact tests, as appropriate.
Results: Thirty-one workers (59.6%) were aged >45 years, and 33 (63.5%) were male. RULA and REBA assessments were each reported for 26 workers. Overall, 37 workers (71.2%) had low and 15 (28.8%) had high musculoskeletal complaint categories. Based on the reported data, older age and higher REBA risk were significantly associated with musculoskeletal complaint categories, whereas gender was not significantly associated. The RULA finding requires interpretation according to the final verified statistical analysis.
Conclusion: Older age and higher REBA risk were associated with a greater proportion of high musculoskeletal complaints. These findings support the relevance of ergonomic assessment for identifying work activities that may require further evaluation and corrective action. Because of the cross-sectional design, the observed associations do not establish causality or temporal direction.