J. For. Sci., 2024, 70(8):436-445 | DOI: 10.17221/26/2024-JFS

Effect of the body mass index and length of work on the stress of individual body parts of chainsaw operatorsOriginal Paper

Luboš Staněk1, Václav Mergl2
1 Department of Engineering, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
2 Institute of Automotive Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

The subject of this study is to point out the issue of various impacts of musculoskeletal disorders in chainsaw operators and their impact on human health. The first goal was to find out whether the body mass index is responsible for excessive stress to individual parts of the body of chainsaw operators at work. The second goal was to determine whether the excessive load to the individual body parts is affected by the time of working with the chainsaw. Questionnaires created for the fulfilment of the goals were distributed to professional forest loggers working in the Czech Republic, which were filled in by 161 of them. Questions in the first part of the questionnaire were formulated in such a way that answers to them would clearly identify information on the individual respondents. The second part of the questionnaire was focused on the assessment of the load upon 12 body parts of the operators (each part being split into the right and left sides). The results of the statistical analysis showed that neither the body mass index (BMI) nor the length of time working with the chainsaw affect the load on the individual parts of the body of the chainsaw operators.

Keywords: ergonomics; forestry; musculoskeletal disorders (MSD); tree felling; workload

Received: March 26, 2024; Revised: May 27, 2024; Accepted: June 3, 2024; Published: August 23, 2024  Show citation

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Staněk L, Mergl V. Effect of the body mass index and length of work on the stress of individual body parts of chainsaw operators. J. For. Sci. 2024;70(8):436-445. doi: 10.17221/26/2024-JFS.
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