Risk Factors Associated with Work-Related Fatigue Among Indonesian Mining Workers

This study aimed to examine the association between risk factors for work-related fatigue (WRF) among Indonesian mining workers. This preliminary study was conducted among 201 surface mining workers as part of a larger study in a mineral mining industry in Indonesia. A validated self-reported questionnaire was used to obtain information on individual characteristics (i.e. age, smoking and exercise habits, duration of work, shift work, and job position), physical (i.e. duration of working in sitting posture, squatting posture, trunk flexion posture, hand above shoulder, using vibrating hand tool, exposed to whole body vibration, and lifting), and psychosocial (i.e. effort, reward, over commitment, supervisor support, co-worker support, job satisfaction, and work stress) factors. Two sets of validated questionnaires were used to assess acute and chronic WRF as the outcomes. A multivariate linear regression model was developed for each outcome. This study found that being mining operators and processing plant operators, doing activities that involved hands above shoulders, using vibrating hand tools, and reporting high effort score increased acute WRF score. In contrast, former smokers and high supervisor support decreased the score of acute WRF. Being mining operators, warehouse crews and processing plant operators, reporting high effort score, high over commitment score and their job to be mildly/moderately to very/extremely stressful increase chronic WRF score. In conclusion, job position and both physical and psychosocial factors increased the acute WRF score, whereas for chronic WRF, only job position and psychosocial factor increased chronic WRF score.