Abstract:
Beverage industry workers are at risk of Musculoskeletal and Cardiovascular (MC) injuries which result in low productivity. Literature has shown that these injuries could be managed using the aerobic energy generating process. Previous studies have focused largely on body composition and safety precautions with less emphasis on ergonomics. This study, therefore, was designed to determine the effects of Aerobic Dance Exercise (ADE) programme on Health Related Fitness Variables (HRFV) (Weight, Percent Body Fat - PBF, Resting Heart Rate - RHR, Systolic Blood Pressure – SBP, Diastolic Blood Pressure - DBP, Hand Strength - HS and flexibility) and Work Productivity (WP) measures (Workplace Accident Rate - WAR, Factory Fault Product - FFP, absenteeism and Healthcare Cost - HC) of beverage industry workers in Oyo and Osun states. The moderating effects of age and gender were also examined.
The study adopted Labanotation Theory, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design with 2x2x2 factorial matrix was used. Two beverage companies (International Brewery, Ilesa and Coca-cola, Asejire plants) with high records of workers with MC injuries were purposively selected. Workers with MC injury complaints, high annual healthcare cost, high rate of absenteeism, high factory fault products and high workplace accident rate were selected as participants. Participants were assigned to ADE (Ilesa-36) and control group (CG) (Asejire plants-36). Treatment lasted 12 weeks. Instruments used were Sphygmomanometer, Stethoscope, Skinfold Caliper, Flex Box, Hand Grip Dynamometer, Stadiometer, Weighing Scale, Heart Rate Monitor, Work Register, Clinic Case File and Productivity Measurements Scale (r=0.76). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Cochran Q test and Analysis of covariance at 0.05 level of significance.
The participants were males (64.0%) and females (36.0%) with mean age of 45.3+ 3.26 years. There were significant mean differences in baseline and post-treatment values of Weight - (79.56 + 7.99; 76.67 ¬+ 8.41); PBF - (27.04 ¬+ 6.65; 24.39 + 24.39); RHR - (84.03 + 2.6; 80.14 + 4.57); SBP - (125.96 + 5.06; 120.61 + 6.41); DBP - (82.92 ¬+ 5.78; 80.01 + 5.47); HS - (26.61¬ + 10.87; 27.59 + 11.07) and flexibility - (9.006 + 5.92; 4.13 + 7.59) respectively. There were also significant mean differences in baseline and post-treatment values in terms of WAR - (20.90 + 3.81; 28.69 + 6.36); FFP - (31.11 + 7.90; 35.20 + 10.39); absenteeism - (30.90 + 9.38; 37.04 + 9.66) and HC - (14.52 + 3.6; 22.14 + 8.86) respectively. The main effects of gender and age were not significant on HRFV and WP. There were two-way interaction effects of ADE and gender (F(1,70) = 40.5; partial ƞ2 = 0.70) and RHR (F(1,70) = 87.9; partial ƞ2 = 0.15) in favour of male participants. The three-way effect was only significant on HRFV (F(1,70) = 56.15; partial ƞ2=0.82) in favour of male participants from ADE group of age bracket 30-49 years but was not on WP.
The aerobic dance exercise programme improved health related fitness variables and increased the work productivity of the beverage industry workers in Oyo and Osun states. Management of Beverage companies should adopt aerobic dance exercise programme to improve the health variables and increase the productivity of the workers.
