Comparison of musculoskeletal load in using two devices for manual height adjustment of the hospital bed.

Purpose. Patient manual handling in bed causes lower back pain (LBP) among Thai nurses. This study aims to develop the extension device for manual height adjustment of the hospital bed, and to evaluate its efficiency in order to prevent LBP among Thai nurses. Materials and Methods. Eleven (11) participants were employed for electromyography (EMG) measurement in eight right muscles. Subsequently, fifty-six (56) volunteer nurses were recruited by convenience sampling for the observational risk assessment by Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) and satisfaction evaluation. The characteristics of the participants, percentage of maximum voluntary contraction (%MVC) of each muscle, REBA scores, and satisfaction in using the device were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), paired t test, and Wilcoxon signed ranks test, respectively. Results. The %MVC of the six muscles, e.g., biceps brachii, deltoideus, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, erector spinae, and hamstring muscle were found to have a 4-18% decrease. The REBA scores decreased in both the left and the right when using the extension device, and all participants were more satisfied with the extension device than the hand crank of the hospital bed. Conclusions. The use of the extension device for manual height adjustment of the hospital bed developed from this study helps to prevent LBP among healthcare workers across settings.