Reliability of a widely-used test of peripheral cutaneous vibration sensitivity and comparison of two testing protocols.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gerr FE ; Letz R
• Description:
  Instruments which measure peripheral sensory function have been used in several epidemiological studies to evaluate hazardous working conditions; 22 healthy volunteers were tested to determine the reliability and time efficiency of two testing protocols for the determination of cutaneous vibration sensitivity. A widely used testing device, Vibratron-II, was used to administer both protocols. The two methods tested included a method of limits (MOL) protocol and the Sensortek forced choice (FC) protocol. The MOL procedure was superior to the FC procedure in that the former method was far more reliable than the FC and required about half as much time to administer. Administration time could be reduced to about one third from the times reported without affecting the reliability of the MOL threshold estimate. These findings suggested that the current wide spread uncritical acceptance of FC procedures as preferable to the MOL may be unwarranted. Even so, for all methods used it was necessary to have a further elucidation of the variables that affect vibration threshold estimates. Some of these variables included severity of disease and level of educational attainment. The authors recommend the MOL procedure when the severity of disease in the test population is mild to moderate and when subjects are fully able to understand and comply with instructions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Content Notes:
  in NTRL, no pdf
• Subjects:
  Nervous System Occupational Health Safety Vibration
• Keywords:
  NIOSH-Grant; Neurotoxic-effects; Vibration-exposure; Testing-equipment; Physiological-testing; Sensitivity-testing; Vibration-monitors; Vibration-disease
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-16
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00182768
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB89130017
• Citation:
  Division of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, 1988 Jan; :1-16
• Contact Point Address:
  Community Medicine Mount Sinai School of Medicine One Gustave L Levy Place New York, N Y 10029
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1988
• NORA Priority Area:
  Neurotoxic Disorders ; Neurotoxic Effects
• Performing Organization:
  Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  19861101
• Source Full Name:
  Division of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York
• End Date:
  19870831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/246164/cdc_246164_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 168.02 KB ]