Analysis of Musculoskeletal Loadings in Lower Limbs During Stilts Walking in Occupational Activity

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chiou SS ; Pan, Christopher S. ; Wu, John Z.
• Description:
  Construction workers often use stilts to raise them to a higher level above ground to perform many tasks, such as taping and sanding on the ceiling or upper half of a wall. Some epidemiological studies indicated that the use of stilts may place workers at increased risk for knee injuries or may increase the likelihood of trips and falls. In the present study, we developed an inverse dynamic model of stilts walking to investigate the effects of this activity on the joint moments and musculoskeletal loadings in the lower limbs. The stilts-walk model was developed using the commercial musculoskeletal simulation software AnyBody (version 3.0, Anybody Technology, Aalborg, Denmark). Simulations were performed using data collected from tests of four subjects. All subjects walked without or with stilts through a 12-m straight path. The moments of the knee, hip, and ankle joints, as well as forces in major muscles or muscle groups in the lower limbs, for stilts walking were compared with those for normal walking. Our simulations showed that the use of stilts may potentially increase the peak joint moment in knee extension by approximately 20%; induce 15% reduction and slight reduction in the peak joint moments in ankle plantar flexion and hip extension, respectively. The model predictions on the muscle forces indicated that the use of stilts may potentially increase loadings in five of eight major muscle groups in the lower extremities. The most remarkable was the force in rectus femoris muscle, which was found to potentially increase by up to 1.79 times for the stilts walking compared to that for the normal walking. The proposed model would be useful for the engineers in their efforts to improve the stilts design to reduce musculoskeletal loadings and fall risk. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Biomechanical Phenomena Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Gait Biomechanics Biomedical-engineering Inverse Dynamics Joint Moment Muscle-tissue Muscle Forces Musculoskeletal-system Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Occupational-hazards Risk-factors Skeletal-disorders Skeletal-stress Skeletal-system-disorders Statistical-analysis Stilts Work-analysis Work-areas Work-environment Work-performance Work-practices Worker-health

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• ISSN:
  0090-6964
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research ; HELD - Health Effects Laboratory Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  37
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20035419
• Citation:
  Ann Biomed Eng 2009 Jun; 37(6):1177-1189
• Contact Point Address:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1095 Willowdale Road, Mail Stop- 2027, Morgantown, WV 26505
• Email:
  jwu@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of Biomedical Engineering
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2589c46e6d6a32dfbecbb7dacd5c36166d26628dae19a3e116f49bd4baaf8ca7f16fce8e92f809bc20cb4249a048625a7e61698432e57e8011460c0d584d554c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/187281/cdc_187281_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 977.39 KB ]