Towards a Safety Culture in Workplaces: Intelligent Rest Breaks and Social Support

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are pervasive in the workforce and constitute the single largest category of work-related illness. The root cause for MSDs is complex. However, there is little dispute that MSD morbidity is primarily due to physical and psychosocial risk factors, and these two domains of risk factors share a common upstream determinant. A work organization influences both the physical load patterns and psychosocial features. In this paper, we propose a technology-facilitated intervention program that could lead to an improved safety culture in workplaces. The program is aimed at addressing one of the physical risk factors, i.e., rest breaks, and a psychosocial risk factor, i.e., social support. First, a wearable soft orthosis is used to detect the types of physical activities and load patterns, and to derive an intelligent rest break schedule for each type of activity and load patterns. The orthosis would also remind the participant to take a rest break at appropriate times. Second, a mobile app is developed to cultivate a learning community where the participants could seek and provide social support and increase their awareness of occupational safety. We collected some preliminary app usage data and developed a methodology of identifying app usage patterns using both supervised and unsupervised learning. The feasibility of the method is validated using synthesized data derived from the collected data.