Ergonomic Risk Assessment for the Prolonged Usage of Smartphones on Students

Abstract

Smartphones have been one of the products that Filipino students use daily for long periods of time due to its access to many functions they need. There are studies done on the prolonged usage of smartphones however, no study has considered covering the anthropometric hand measurement and posture of Filipino students. This study analyses the possible risks and problems the subjects encounter through prolonged phone usage. Online survey was conducted to obtain the duration and frequency of phone usage of the respondents, problems they encounter with it, and their phone specifications. After obtaining 101 samples using purposive sampling, 30 random subjects were selected to study their postures using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and measure the anthropometric data of their hands. The results of medium risk to the user’s neck and wrist from RULA agree with the discomfort experienced by the subjects based on the survey.