Manual Handling in Fish Port: An Ergonomic Assessment on the Porters “Kargadors” in Navotas Fishing Port Complex

In the Philippines, fishing industry is one of the most important sectors, considering it as one of the top fishing producing countries. In fish ports, workers are involved in carrying different weights of loads that may lead to Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). This study aims to establish a basis for WMSDs on porters in fish ports and intends to examine the prevalence, severity, and significant factors that may cause their existence. The body regions with high prevalence of self-reported symptoms were the ankle/feet, hips/buttocks, and shoulder body regions. The Binary Logistic Regression models showed that there is a relationship between prevalence of symptoms of WMSDs and the significant factors. The factors found to be significant were ‘cigarette smoking’, ‘number of banyeras carried’, ‘assistance from coworkers’, ‘weight of load’, ‘workspace’, and ‘conflicts at work’. Based on the results of the study, recommendations were developed to reduce the prevalence of WMSDs among the porters.