A dynamical systems analysis of assisted and unassisted anterior and posterior hand-held load carriage.

Unlabelled: Load carriage is recognised as a primary occupational factor leading to slip and fall injuries, and therefore assessing balance maintenance during such tasks is critical in assessing injury risk. Ten males completed 55 strides under five carriage conditions: (1) unassisted anterior, (2) unassisted posterior, (3) assisted anterior, (4) assisted posterior and (5) unloaded gait (UG). Kinematic data were recorded from markers affixed to landmarks on the right side of each participant, in order to calculate segment angles for the foot, shank, thigh and pelvis.

The effect of an on-body assistive device on transverse plane trunk coordination during a load carriage task.

Load carriage is a physically demanding task that is often required of employees in many different occupations. The Mover's Assistive Device (MAD) is an on-body ergonomic assistive device designed to help professional movers transfer boxes during two techniques of hand-held load carriage: anterior carriage and posterior carriage. The purpose of this study was to examine the intersegment coordination between the trunk and pelvis as well as the trunk and box, since coordination may be a mechanism to reduce the amount of stress exerted on the back during load carriage.

Interjoint coordination and the personal lift-assist device.

It has been suggested that interjoint coordination may serve to reduce joint stress and muscular demand and to maintain balance during dynamic lifting tasks, thus having implications for safe lifting practices. Before recommending the use of an on-body ergonomic aid, the Personal Lift-Assist Device (PLAD), it is important to determine any effects this device may have on interjoint coordination. Principal component analyses were applied to relative phase angle waveforms, defining the hip-knee and lumbar spine-hip coordination of 15 males and 15 females during a repetitive lifting task.