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| Alan Hedge, director of Cornell's Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory, demonstrates the use of a new lightweight backpack vacuum cleaner, among other floor cleaning equipment. |
Tidying up, vacuuming and doing laundry also rank in the top five most tiring tasks, says Alan Hedge, professor of design and environmental analysis at Cornell and director of Cornell's Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory. He recently conducted an ergonomic survey of household tasks and products with Cornell student Michele Marut for her graduate thesis.
The two researchers went back to 1937 and found a similar Cornell survey that also named the most tiring household tasks as general cleaning, mopping floors and laundry. But that survey also named ironing and carrying water. "Although we've made progress in reducing housework in the areas of ironing and carrying water, we're not doing much better in these other areas," says Hedge.
"As a result of our study, we recommend that researchers focus on redesigning the process of mopping, scrubbing and vacuuming," says Marut, now an ergonomist at Kohler Co. She and Hedge analyzed data from more than 350 respondents to an online survey that asked questions about the strain and fatigue from household chores.
Marut presented the findings at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's 43rd annual meeting in October and they have been published in the meeting's proceedings.
To reduce strain and fatigue from the most tiring household tasks, Marut and Hedge say, new ergonomic products are needed to decrease the effort, such as bending and stretching, involved in scrubbing and mopping. They also suggest new kinds of flooring materials that would be easier to clean and better chemical floor cleaners.
Researchers also need to increase public awareness about using ergonomic products, say Marut and Hedge. Many people evidently feel that products identified as "ergonomic" are not worth the additional cost. However the two note that the sample of 307 women and 78 men were self-selected in that they answered the researchers' online request for volunteers, then were sent the survey. At least half these respondents said they never use any of the 12 ergonomic or timesaving products listed in the questionnaire. The items used most often were traditional peelers (29 percent), can openers (27 percent), vacuum cleaners (22 percent) and knives (21 percent).
Related World Wide Web sites: The following sites provide additional information on this news release. Some might not be part of the Cornell University community, and Cornell has no control over their content or availability.
-- For a "slide" show on the housework/ergonomics paper,
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/AHProjects/marut99/marut_v3_document.htm
-- For information about the Cornell University Ergonomics Web:
-- For information on the Cornell Human Factors and Ergonomics Research Laboratory:
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/CUErgoHP2.html
-- For information on the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis:
-- For information on Michele Marut:
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/mrm15/