The Effect of a Knee Support on the Biomechanical Response of the Low Back

Details

• Personal Author:
  Jiang Z ; Mirka GA ; Shu Y ; Xu X
• Description:
  Stooping and squatting postures are seen in a number of industries (e.g., agriculture, construction) where workers must work near ground level for extended periods of time. The focus of the current research was to evaluate a knee support device designed to reduce the biomechanical loading of these postures. Ten participants performed a series of sudden loading tasks while in a semisquat posture under two conditions of knee support (no support and fully supported) and two conditions of torso flexion (45 and 60 degrees ). A weight was released into the hands of the participants who then came to steady state while maintaining the designated posture. As they performed this task, the EMG responses of the trunk extensors (multifidus and erector spinae) were collected, both during the "sudden loading" phase of the trial as well as the steady weight-holding phase of the trial. As expected, the effects of torso flexion angle showed significant decreases in the activation of the multifidus muscles with greater torso angle (indicating the initiation of the flexion-relaxation response). Interestingly, the results showed that the knee support device had no effect on the activation levels of the sampled muscles, indicating that the loss of the degree of freedom from the ankle joint during the knee support condition had no impact on trunk extensor muscle response. The a priori concern with regard to these supports was that they would tend to focus loading on the low back and therefore would not serve as a potential ergonomic solution for these stooping/semisquatting tasks. Because the results of this study did not support this concern, further development of such an intervention is underway. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Construction Industry Ergonomics Fatigue Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Agricultural-industry Agricultural-workers Back-injuries Construction-industry Construction-workers Injuries Manual-lifting Musculoskeletal-system Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Repetitive-work Work-environment

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• ISSN:
  1065-8483
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  275-281
• Volume:
  23
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20033011
• Citation:
  J Appl Biomech 2007 Nov; 23(4):275-281
• Contact Point Address:
  Department of Industrial Engineering, North Carolina State University, NC
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• Performing Organization:
  East Carolina University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Applied Biomechanics
• End Date:
  20080929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2e707dec4e0f3211fbe034c266dc6b251c4c8b62acb6e4ef3d83e48c2c89c952bde1851a42d55ffb8abb991673c9f9c9659e86bb4db534bd2e798d9c95ddf7cd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188746/cdc_188746_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 133.32 KB ]