# Musculoskeletaleltal Symptoms and Assessment of Ergonomic Risk Factors on a Coffee Farm
## 3 Results
Table 9 shows those body regions with a higher exposure to risk, which would be at a very high value in the neck (56.3%) followed by the back (54.2%) and the shoulder/arm 52%. A high value of exposure to risk was reported especially for the wrist/hand (66,7%), and moderate values of exposure were reported predominantly for stress (72.9% of workers) and work pace (58.3% of workers). Finally, a lower value is found regarding vibration, with 93.8%, 72.9% in driving and 72.9% in the back. Table 10 shows that 82.61% of the cutters have a very high exposure level for the neck and a high exposure level for the wrist and hand. Table 11 shows a very high exposure level in 94.12% of the workers in the back area, 76.47% in the shoulder/arm area and 58.82% at a high exposure level in the wrist-hand segment. Table 12 shows that 87.5% of the workers have a very high exposure level in the back area. Of the workers, 50% have a high exposure level and 37.5% a very high exposure level in the shoulder/brachial region. It should be noted that the processors and pickers handle loads of 40 kg and the cutters of 12 kg, manually. Table 13 shows the relationships between QEC exposure levels and the frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms by body segment. Statistically significant associations were observed between the exposure level of the wrist/hand segment, with symptoms in the neck, right shoulder, left shoulder, right wrist, and left wrist, and between the exposure level of the neck segment, with symptoms in the right wrist, left wrist, right foot, and left foot. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Exposure Factor**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Exposure Level**} \\ \cline{2-9}  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Low**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Moderate**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**High**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Very High**} \\ \cline{2-9}  & **f** & **\%** & **f** & **\%** & **f** & **\%** & **f** & **\%** \\ \hline Back & 0 & 0.0 & 6 & 26.1 & 14 & 60.9 & 3 & 13.0 \\ Shoulder/arm & 0 & 0.0 & 1 & 4.4 & 13 & 56.5 & 9 & 39.1 \\ Wrist/hand & 0 & 0.0 & 4 & 17.4 & 19 & 82.6 & 0 & 0.0 \\ Neck & 0 & 0.0 & 0 & 0.0 & 4 & 17.4 & 19 & 82.6 \\ Driving & 23 & 100 & 0 & 0.0 & 0 & 0.0 & 0 & 0.0 \\ Vibration & 23 & 100 & 0 & 0.0 & 0 & 0.0 & 0 & 0.0 \\ Work pace & 12 & 52.2 & 11 & 47.8 & 0 & 0.0 & 0 & 0.0 \\ Stress & 3 & 13.0 & 15 & 65.2 & 1 & 4.4 & 4 & 17.4 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 10: Frequency (f) and percentage (%) of cutters for each factor according to the level of exposure based on the scores proposed by the QEC method (\(n=23\)). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Exposure Factor**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Exposure Level**} \\ \cline{2-9}  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Low**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Moderate**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**High**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Very High**} \\ \cline{2-9}  & **f** & **\%** & **f** & **\%** & **f** & **\%** & **f** & **\%** \\ \hline Back & 0 & 0.0 & 6 & 12.5 & 16 & 33.3 & 26 & 54.2 \\ Shoulder/arm & 0 & 0.0 & 2 & 4.2 & 21 & 43.8 & 25 & 52.1 \\ Wrist/hand & 1 & 2.1 & 14 & 29.2 & 32 & 66.7 & 1 & 2.1 \\ Neck & 0 & 0.0 & 8 & 16.7 & 13 & 27.1 & 27 & 56.3 \\ Driving & 35 & 72.9 & 10 & 20.8 & 3 & 6.3 & 0 & 0.0 \\ Vibration & 45 & 93.6 & 2 & 4.2 & 1 & 2.1 & 0 & 0.0 \\ Work pace & 19 & 39.6 & 28 & 58.3 & 1 & 2.1 & 0 & 0.0 \\ Stress & 4 & 8.3 & 35 & 72.9 & 5 & 10.4 & 4 & 8.3 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 9: Frequency (f) and percentage (%) of workers for each factor according to the level of exposure based on the scores proposed by the QEC method (\(n=48\)). Figure 2 shows that the level of exposure of the wrist/hand segment is statistically significantly associated with musculoskeletal discomfort at the neck (A), right (B) and left (C) shoulder and right (D) and left (E) wrist.