ABSTRACTThis study examined the ergonomic assessment of physiological cost of household work among women in Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria. It assessed the energy cost, heart rate, rate of perceived exertion and postural stress of cooking activities of kneading dough, stirring hard porridge (tuwon-shinkafa) and pounding yam among women in Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria. The study had five specific objectives, five research questions and four null hypotheses. A 3 x 1 x 3 factorial experimental research design was employed for the study. The population of this study comprised of women residents in three (3) bedroom apartments of Government Secondary Schools within Kaduna Metropolis, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The simple random sampling was used to select sixteen (16) homemakers residing in three (3) bedroom apartments purposively selected among Government Secondary Schools within Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria. The Standiometre, Omron body Composition Monitor, Heart rate monitor, Flexi-curve, and Borg Scale were the instruments used to obtain relevant data. Three cooking activities were selected kneading dough, stirring hard porridge (tuwon-shinkafa) and pounding yam. Descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation, standard error, frequency and percentage were used to analyze the demographic characteristics, postural assessments and research questions. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to test hypotheses 1 and 2 while one way analysis of variance was used to test hypotheses 3 and 4. The result revealed that Kneading dough, stirring hard porridge (tuwon-shinkafa) and pounding yam led to high energy cost (expenditure) especially during and at the end of the cooking activities among women in Kaduna Metropolis, Nigeria (p = 0.001). The cooking activities increased the resting heart rate of women during and immediately after kneading dough, stirring hard porridge (tuwon-shinkafa) and pounding yam in Kaduna Metropolis, Nigeria (p = 0.012). The rate of perceived exertion was maximum during pounding yam but were moderate during stirring hard porridge (tuwon-shinkafa) and kneading dough among women in Kaduna Metropolis, Nigeria. (p = 0.001). Postural stress was significant at both upper curve and lower curve during pounding yam, stirring hard porridge (tuwon-shinkafa) and kneading dough among women in Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria (P = 0.001). The study concluded that the cooking activities and time spent during the performance of the activities had effect on the physiological and postural conditions of homemakers residing at the four (4) selected Government Secondary Schools within Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria. The researcher recommends among others that homemakers should make cooking activities of kneading dough, stirring hard porridge (tuwon-shinkafa) and pounding yam a regular activity so that the body?s physique becomes used to the activity.
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