Nurses are at increased risk to develop musculoskeletal disorders (in particular low back pain) due to prolonged exposure to awkward postures, but there is a lack of quantitative objective measurements useful to characterize such postures. In the present study, we employed a single wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) placed in the low back to monitor trunk flexion of eleven professional nurses working at maternity and cardiology wards during two hours of a regular shift. Trunk movement was analyzed using an exposure variation analysis approach which classifies flexion in three classes (i.e. 30–60°, 60–90° and >90°). The results show that tested nurses spent 3.5% of the monitored time with their trunk flexed between 30 and 60° and 0.2% between 60 and 90°. The IMU-based approach appears suitable to perform long-term monitoring of trunk postures in workers at risk for musculoskeletal disorders, overcoming the limitation of the observational methods and questionnaires.

Quantitative Assessment of Trunk Flexion in Nurses Using Wearable Inertial Sensor: A Pilot Study

Porta, Micaela
Primo
Conceptualization
;
Campagna, Marcello;Mura, Giovanni Marco;Pau, Massimiliano
Ultimo
Formal Analysis
2020-01-01

Abstract

Nurses are at increased risk to develop musculoskeletal disorders (in particular low back pain) due to prolonged exposure to awkward postures, but there is a lack of quantitative objective measurements useful to characterize such postures. In the present study, we employed a single wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) placed in the low back to monitor trunk flexion of eleven professional nurses working at maternity and cardiology wards during two hours of a regular shift. Trunk movement was analyzed using an exposure variation analysis approach which classifies flexion in three classes (i.e. 30–60°, 60–90° and >90°). The results show that tested nurses spent 3.5% of the monitored time with their trunk flexed between 30 and 60° and 0.2% between 60 and 90°. The IMU-based approach appears suitable to perform long-term monitoring of trunk postures in workers at risk for musculoskeletal disorders, overcoming the limitation of the observational methods and questionnaires.
2020
978-3-030-51548-5
978-3-030-51549-2
Trunk posture; Inertial sensors; Nurses; Work related musculoskeletal disorders
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11584/293168
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