Journal of Ergonomics

Introduction: Varicose veins in the lower limbs commonly occur in the general population and can negatively affect their quality of life. One of the high-risk jobs is the field hairdressers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ergonomic interventions on quality of life of female hairdressers suffering from diseases in the lower extremities varicose veins.

Methods: The study population was all female hairdressers of Hamadan Mahdieh clinic who were referred for medical examinations. Using simple random sampling method, 70 patients suffering from varicose disease were chosen and were classified to case and control groups. The intervention included an exercise protocol for the cases with varicose disease. The present study was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test and participants responded to Aberdeen varicose veins, chronic pain and muscle fatigue questionnaires, which were considered as indicators of quality of working life. Data was analyzed by paired sample t-test using of SPSS 16.

Results: The results showed that ergonomic interventions were effective on the rate of varicose score, pain and swelling score as well as the score of muscle fatigue of left and right lower limbs in the case group. The average scores of varicose veins, pain and swelling, and left and right lower extremity muscle fatigue in the case group decreased respectively 2.66, 2.4, 0.75 and 1.2.

Conclusions: With regard to the impact of exercise protocol on quality of working life in hairdresserd, the use of this protocol is recommended in patients with varicose veins disease.