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Comparison of Subjective Responses of Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Controls to Use of Spinal Exoskeleton during Simple Load Lifting Tasks: A Pilot Study

Spinal exoskeletons have been suggested as an approach for the prevention and rehabilitation of occupational low back pain (LBP). While the state-of-the-art exoskeletons were shown to substantially unload the back, user acceptance is still limited. Perceived discomfort and restriction of freedom of...

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Autores principales: Kozinc, Žiga, Babič, Jan, Šarabon, Nejc
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7795241/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33379316
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010161
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author Kozinc, Žiga
Babič, Jan
Šarabon, Nejc
author_facet Kozinc, Žiga
Babič, Jan
Šarabon, Nejc
author_sort Kozinc, Žiga
collection PubMed
description Spinal exoskeletons have been suggested as an approach for the prevention and rehabilitation of occupational low back pain (LBP). While the state-of-the-art exoskeletons were shown to substantially unload the back, user acceptance is still limited. Perceived discomfort and restriction of freedom of movement are commonly reported. In this pilot study, we explored the differences in subjective responses and user impressions to using passive spinal exoskeleton during a set of simple lifting tasks between LBP patients (n = 12) and asymptomatic individuals (n = 10). Visual analog scales (0–10) were used for all assessments. Overall, the results showed mostly similar responses or slightly more positive responses to the exoskeleton from LBP patients. Most notably, the LBP patients reported a statistically significant (p = 0.048) higher willingness to use the device daily (5.36 ± 4.05) compared to the control group (2.00 ± 1.85) and also gave the device a higher overall grade (6.58 ± 1.98 vs. 4.30 ± 2.26; p = 0.021). This study has demonstrated that individuals with current LBP responded more favorably to the use of the spinal exoskeleton for simple lifting tasks. This implies that current exoskeletons could be appropriate for LBP rehabilitation, but not preventions, as pain-free individuals are less willing to use such devices. Future studies should explore whether different exoskeleton designs could be more appropriate for people with no LBP issues.
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spelling pubmed-77952412021-01-10 Comparison of Subjective Responses of Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Controls to Use of Spinal Exoskeleton during Simple Load Lifting Tasks: A Pilot Study Kozinc, Žiga Babič, Jan Šarabon, Nejc Int J Environ Res Public Health Letter Spinal exoskeletons have been suggested as an approach for the prevention and rehabilitation of occupational low back pain (LBP). While the state-of-the-art exoskeletons were shown to substantially unload the back, user acceptance is still limited. Perceived discomfort and restriction of freedom of movement are commonly reported. In this pilot study, we explored the differences in subjective responses and user impressions to using passive spinal exoskeleton during a set of simple lifting tasks between LBP patients (n = 12) and asymptomatic individuals (n = 10). Visual analog scales (0–10) were used for all assessments. Overall, the results showed mostly similar responses or slightly more positive responses to the exoskeleton from LBP patients. Most notably, the LBP patients reported a statistically significant (p = 0.048) higher willingness to use the device daily (5.36 ± 4.05) compared to the control group (2.00 ± 1.85) and also gave the device a higher overall grade (6.58 ± 1.98 vs. 4.30 ± 2.26; p = 0.021). This study has demonstrated that individuals with current LBP responded more favorably to the use of the spinal exoskeleton for simple lifting tasks. This implies that current exoskeletons could be appropriate for LBP rehabilitation, but not preventions, as pain-free individuals are less willing to use such devices. Future studies should explore whether different exoskeleton designs could be more appropriate for people with no LBP issues. MDPI 2020-12-28 2021-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7795241/ /pubmed/33379316 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010161 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Letter
Kozinc, Žiga
Babič, Jan
Šarabon, Nejc
Comparison of Subjective Responses of Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Controls to Use of Spinal Exoskeleton during Simple Load Lifting Tasks: A Pilot Study
title Comparison of Subjective Responses of Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Controls to Use of Spinal Exoskeleton during Simple Load Lifting Tasks: A Pilot Study
title_full Comparison of Subjective Responses of Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Controls to Use of Spinal Exoskeleton during Simple Load Lifting Tasks: A Pilot Study
title_fullStr Comparison of Subjective Responses of Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Controls to Use of Spinal Exoskeleton during Simple Load Lifting Tasks: A Pilot Study
title_full_unstemmed Comparison of Subjective Responses of Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Controls to Use of Spinal Exoskeleton during Simple Load Lifting Tasks: A Pilot Study
title_short Comparison of Subjective Responses of Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Controls to Use of Spinal Exoskeleton during Simple Load Lifting Tasks: A Pilot Study
title_sort comparison of subjective responses of low back pain patients and asymptomatic controls to use of spinal exoskeleton during simple load lifting tasks: a pilot study
topic Letter
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7795241/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33379316
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010161
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