Aging, obesity and beyond: Implications for healthy work environment

The aging workforce, increase in obesity, and lack of exercise and physical activity are changing the landscape of work environments in the industrialized world. The goal of this panel is to make ergonomics and safety professionals aware of the importance of examining health and wellness issues, aging, obesity, and other modifiable health risks pertaining to occupational health. The first of seven presentations will cover an evidence based wellness continuum that describes specific factors that can motivate healthy work environments. The second presentation discusses the challenges and implications of the aging workforce with emphasis on the role of ergonomics in maintaining health, wellness and working contributions of the aging workforce. In general, muscle mass and muscle strength decrease with age, however the third presentation examines if such age-associated changes are evident during one-handed isometric pulling. Stratifying injury risk in overweight and obese populations is still a challenging endeavor. The fourth presentation demonstrates the biomechanical consequences of gait (a)symmetry due to being overweight and the risk of falling. There is an increasing evidence of obesity influencing every organ system adversely in the human body, including the brain. The fifth presentation examines the association between work performance of obese and non-obese individuals during incremental repetitive lifting and change in their cerebral hemodynamics and cardiorespiratory responses. An interaction between aging and obesity in addressing the risk for involvement in a motor vehicle crash is discussed in the sixth presentation. The final presentation focuses on understanding the integrated efforts of physiological systems such as respiratory, cardiovascular, and skeletal muscle within the context of aging, obesity and physical activity.