Objective: To gather information on the (a) types of wearable sensors, particularly personal activity monitors, currently used by occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals; (b) potential benefits of using such technologies in the workplace; and (c) perceived barriers preventing the widespread adoption of wearable sensors in industry. Background: Wearable sensors are increasingly being promoted as a means to improve employee health and well-being, and there is mounting evidence supporting their use as exposure assessment and personal health tools. Despite this, many workplaces have been hesitant to adopt these technologies. Methods: An electronic survey was emailed to 28,428 registered members of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) and 1,302 professionals certified by the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (BCPE). Results: A total of 952 valid responses were returned. Over half of respondents described being in favor of using wearable sensors to track OSH-related risk factors and relevant exposure metrics at their respective workplaces. However, barriers including concerns regarding employee privacy/confidentiality of collected data, employee compliance, sensor durability, the cost/benefit ratio of using wearables, and good manufacturing practice requirements were described as challenges precluding adoption. Conclusion: The broad adoption of wearable technologies appears to depend largely on the scientific community’s ability to successfully address the identified barriers. Application: Investigators may use the information provided to develop research studies that better address OSH practitioner concerns and help technology developers operationalize wearable sensors to improve employee health and well-being.

Mounting evidence suggests that musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) may be the result of a fatigue failure process in musculoskeletal tissues. Evaluations of MSD risk in epidemiological studies and current MSD risk assessment tools, however, have not yet incorporated important principles of fatigue failure analysis in their appraisals of MSD risk. This article examines the evidence suggesting that fatigue failure may play an important role in the aetiology of MSDs, assesses important implications with respect to MSD risk assessment and discusses research needs that may be required to advance the scientific community’s ability to more effectively prevent the development of MSDs. Practitioner Summary: Evidence suggests that musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) may result from a fatigue failure process. This article proposes a unifying framework that aims to explain why exposure to physical risk factors contributes to the development of work-related MSDs. Implications of that framework are discussed.

The accuracy and repeatability of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) system for directly measuring trunk angular displacement and upper arm elevation were evaluated over eight hours (i) in comparison to a gold standard, optical motion capture (OMC) system in a laboratory setting, and (ii) during a field-based assessment of dairy parlour work. Sample-to-sample root mean square differences between the IMU and OMC system ranged from 4.1° to 6.6° for the trunk and 7.2°–12.1° for the upper arm depending on the processing method. Estimates of mean angular displacement and angular displacement variation (difference between the 90th and 10th percentiles of angular displacement) were observed to change <4.5° on average in the laboratory and <1.5° on average in the field per eight hours of data collection. Results suggest the IMU system may serve as an acceptable instrument for directly measuring trunk and upper arm postures in field-based occupational exposure assessment studies with long sampling durations. Practitioner Summary: Few studies have evaluated inertial measurement unit (IMU) systems in the field or over long sampling durations. Results of this study indicate that the IMU system evaluated has reasonably good accuracy and repeatability for use in a field setting over a long sampling duration.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of augmented reality (AR) cues in improving driving safety among elderly drivers who are at increased crash risk because of cognitive impairments. Cognitively challenging driving environments pose a particular crash risk for elderly drivers. AR cuing is a promising technology to mitigate risk by directing driver attention to roadway hazards. We investigate whether AR cues improve or interfere with hazard perception in elderly drivers with age-related cognitive decline. A total of 20 elderly (M = 73 years, SD = 5) licensed drivers with a range of cognitive abilities measured by a speed-of-processing (SOP) composite participated in a 1-hr drive in an interactive, fixed-base driving simulator. Each participant drove through six straight, 6-mile-long, rural roadway scenarios following a lead vehicle. AR cues directed attention to potential roadside hazards in three of the scenarios, and the other three were uncued (baseline) drives. Effects of AR cuing were evaluated with respect to (a) detection of hazardous target objects, (b) interference with detecting nonhazardous secondary objects, and (c) impairment in maintaining safe distance behind a lead vehicle. AR cuing improved the detection of hazardous target objects of low visibility. AR cues did not interfere with detection of nonhazardous secondary objects and did not impair ability to maintain safe distance behind a lead vehicle. SOP capacity did not moderate those effects. AR cues show promise for improving elderly driver safety by increasing hazard detection likelihood without interfering with other driving tasks, such as maintaining safe headway.