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This research provides an analytical tool, fuzzy decision support
system (FDSS), to find the precedence of jeopardy in occupations spawning
shoulder and neck pain (SNP), an important musculoskeletal disorder and the
most ubiquitous pain complaint in an occupational environment. FDSS
evaluates and prioritizes the relative importance of the imprecise,
uncertain and vague nature of risk factors causing occupational SNP. The
objective involves derivation of mechanical-, physical- and
psychosocial-related risk categories using knowledge acquisition
implemented by identifying the risk factors through literature analysis,
conventional and concept mapping interviews with expert neurologists,
orthopedists, psychologists and physiotherapists. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy
process is applied as an evaluation tool to measure the significance of the
risk factors in each occupation. The results indicate that the proposed
system supplements SNP diagnosis experts with more precise key decision
support information. This assists health care organizations to
systematically identify appropriate occupations that grounds high risk for
the occurrence of SNP and so the curative practices can be executed
effectively.
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