ergonomic risk factors in university-level teachers in sonora, mexico: towards a sustainable environment

Background: a sustainable environment plays a crucial role in mitigating musculoskeletal disorders, visual fatigue, stress, and exhaustion. consequently, it enhances productivity and promotes greater work efficiency, contributing to workers' overall well-being. while ergonomic risk studies are widely documented in the literature, most focus on the industrial sector, with limited ergonomic assessments available in the educational sector. objectives: evaluate ergonomic risk factors among teachers to foster a sustainable environment.methods: a quantitative study employed an observational, cross-sectional design to measure the ergonomic risk between april and june 2023. the rapid office strain assessment (rosa) method was employed using the ergoniza software to assess full-time professors (ftp) in a university in sonora, mexico, through a statistically representative survey applied with 92% reliability and a maximum allowed error (α) of 0.08. results: the results indicated that out of 158 ftp, 48.7% are at very high risk, 23.1% at high risk, and 28.2% at improvable risk. conclusions: a sustainable environment contributes to improving worker well-being, combating absenteeism and medical costs, increasing productivity, and, therefore, leading to greater work efficiency. the rosa method does not consider some parameters like environmental elements (lighting and temperature).