A systematic review protocol: Examining the evidence of whole body vibration produced by mining equipment

Abstract

Whole body vibration (WBV) is an emerging issue for the mining industry, occuring from the exposure due to many mining operations. This systematic review protocol intends to give answer to the question "what mining equipment contributes the most to occupational whole body vibration and under what conditions?". For that, the main engineering and health databases were selected (i.e Scopus, Science Direct and PubMed) and a set of keywords was defined to latter combination. The selection process of the papers was also described in an attempt to contribute to the general research on this field. All of the data treatment is detailed, including the risk of bias and attempts to deal with it. The protocol for the systematic review is registered in PROSPERO under the code CRD42018087629.