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The Effect of Key Anthropometric and Biomechanics Variables Affecting the Lower Back Forces of Healthcare Workers

Wearable devices are becoming ubiquitous and can be used to better estimate postures and movements to reduce the risk of injuries. Thirty-three participants were recruited in this study to perform two daily repetitive patient transfer tasks while the full body movements were acquired using a set of...

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Autores principales: Ji, Xiaoxu, Littman, Alexa, Hettiarachchige, Ranuki Onara, Piovesan, Davide
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9864406/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36679454
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23020658
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author Ji, Xiaoxu
Littman, Alexa
Hettiarachchige, Ranuki Onara
Piovesan, Davide
author_facet Ji, Xiaoxu
Littman, Alexa
Hettiarachchige, Ranuki Onara
Piovesan, Davide
author_sort Ji, Xiaoxu
collection PubMed
description Wearable devices are becoming ubiquitous and can be used to better estimate postures and movements to reduce the risk of injuries. Thirty-three participants were recruited in this study to perform two daily repetitive patient transfer tasks while the full body movements were acquired using a set of magneto-inertial wearable devices. The use of wearable devices allowed for the estimation of the forces provoked on the lower back during the entire task performance. In postures where the forces exceeded the warning threshold found in the literature, healthcare workers were considered to have a greater risk of injury. Additionally, the maximum force exerted by each hand to avoid injury to the spinal column was also estimated. Knowing the key anthropometric variables associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) will enable engineers and researchers to design better assistive devices and injury prevention programs in diverse workplaces.
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spelling pubmed-98644062023-01-22 The Effect of Key Anthropometric and Biomechanics Variables Affecting the Lower Back Forces of Healthcare Workers Ji, Xiaoxu Littman, Alexa Hettiarachchige, Ranuki Onara Piovesan, Davide Sensors (Basel) Article Wearable devices are becoming ubiquitous and can be used to better estimate postures and movements to reduce the risk of injuries. Thirty-three participants were recruited in this study to perform two daily repetitive patient transfer tasks while the full body movements were acquired using a set of magneto-inertial wearable devices. The use of wearable devices allowed for the estimation of the forces provoked on the lower back during the entire task performance. In postures where the forces exceeded the warning threshold found in the literature, healthcare workers were considered to have a greater risk of injury. Additionally, the maximum force exerted by each hand to avoid injury to the spinal column was also estimated. Knowing the key anthropometric variables associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) will enable engineers and researchers to design better assistive devices and injury prevention programs in diverse workplaces. MDPI 2023-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9864406/ /pubmed/36679454 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23020658 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ji, Xiaoxu
Littman, Alexa
Hettiarachchige, Ranuki Onara
Piovesan, Davide
The Effect of Key Anthropometric and Biomechanics Variables Affecting the Lower Back Forces of Healthcare Workers
title The Effect of Key Anthropometric and Biomechanics Variables Affecting the Lower Back Forces of Healthcare Workers
title_full The Effect of Key Anthropometric and Biomechanics Variables Affecting the Lower Back Forces of Healthcare Workers
title_fullStr The Effect of Key Anthropometric and Biomechanics Variables Affecting the Lower Back Forces of Healthcare Workers
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of Key Anthropometric and Biomechanics Variables Affecting the Lower Back Forces of Healthcare Workers
title_short The Effect of Key Anthropometric and Biomechanics Variables Affecting the Lower Back Forces of Healthcare Workers
title_sort effect of key anthropometric and biomechanics variables affecting the lower back forces of healthcare workers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9864406/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36679454
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23020658
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