The association between physical capacity and physical strain among workers in a food factory

There has been an increasing trend of involvement in blue-collar tasks among industrial workers in developed countries. This prevailing situation of increasing trend has resulted into rather stable or steady increase in the intensity of physical strain among industrial workers in developed countries. In order to address this problem, the associations between physical capacity and physical strain in regard to work demands and tasks ought to be studied. Objective: The major purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between physical capacity and physical strain among workers in a food factory. In addition, the study also examined the association between physical capacity, physical strain and work ability. Subjects/methods: The study involved 873 food factory workers (females, n= 604, males, n= 269) aged 19-65 years. The sample mean age was 40.5 and it composed of blue- collar workers (n =603), managers (n=85) and white-collar workers (n =182). The data was obtained by administering a cross-sectional survey questionnaire to the subjects. Results: Physical strain was inversely related to physical capacity. That is to say that the greater the physical capacity the lower the intensity of physical strain and vice versa. There was a substantial gender difference in the intensity of physical strain. Female subjects had higher intensity of physical strain than their male counterparts. Blue-collar workers had poor physical capacity as well as higher intensity of physical strain in comparison with white-collar workers and the managers. Poor health condition and low work ability scores were revealed among those workers with greater intensity of physical strain. Conclusion: Physical capacity should be considered indispensable for the sake of better health and work ability among food factory workers as having poor physical capacity was greatly associated with higher intensity of physical strain. Key words: Physical capacity, physical strain, work ability, maximal oxygen consumption, work load, work task, work demands, blue-collar task, white-collar task, manual wor