Comparison of infant car seat grip orientations and lift strategies

Details

• Personal Author:
  Beaver L ; Clamann M ; Kaber D ; Taylor K ; Zhu B
• Description:
  The rear-facing Infant Car Seat (ICS) is designed to meet federal requirements for transporting children less than 1 year old. Typical use includes transfer in and out of a vehicle, which is shown to be a difficult lift. Despite the frequency of this lift, manufacturers provide little guidance for users. Review of relevant literature suggested an ICS featuring an angled handle, promoting a neutral wrist posture, would increase grip stability and decrease lifting effort. Popular press suggested a foot-in-car stance for the ICS lift would do the same. An experiment was conducted in which wrist deviations from neutral posture were recorded along with lifting muscle activation levels (multiple flexor muscles and biceps brachii) and overall perceived exertion for straight versus a new bent handle design and conventional stance versus foot-in-car. Foot position was examined to test the recommendations in the popular press. Surprisingly, wrist deviation was not significantly affected by the new bent handle design (due to compensatory behavior with the straight handle) but was related to foot placement (p=0.04). Results revealed the bent handle to significantly reduce flexor activation compared with the straight handle (p=0.0003); however, the level of biceps activation increased. Biceps activation also significantly increased for foot-in-car stance (p=0.035) but not flexor activation. In general, the bent handle enabled the user to lift the ICS with a steadier grip and less effort. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Automobiles Ergonomics Men Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Safety Women
• Keywords:
  Age-groups Author Keywords: Handle Design Children Equipment-design Humans Infant Car Seat Lifting Task Manual-lifting Motor-vehicles Muscles Musculoskeletal-system Physiological-factors Physiology

  More +
• ISSN:
  0003-6870
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• 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
• Volume:
  43
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041188
• Citation:
  Appl Ergon 2012 Jul; 43(4):650-657
• Contact Point Address:
  Michael Clamann, North Carolina State University, Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Raleigh, NC 27695
• Email:
  mpclaman@ncsu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Applied Ergonomics
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f085854802e6045e27205bb13e9e62045bef8e75d5ab28e4c8c6b7e8850cbf43a426890e1889be8e6d84ecf8cc7b345ff0d4d4e488ca27fac5ec0dd9b44f0d00
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193799/cdc_193799_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 814.37 KB ]