Methodological approaches to the evaluation of physical efforts during work (a review of soviet literature).

Present-day methods of evaluation of physical loads, widely used in laboratory studies and in industry and implemented by direct assessment and indirect determination of the amount of efforts made by the hand, are reported. The analysis of literary data testifies to the advisability of wide use of the methodological approach to the evaluation of efforts proposed by the authors which permits recording the efforts of the hand in N and differentiating them according to their application immediately at the time of work independent of the character of the manual instrument used as well as without using any instrument. The measuring of efforts, their amount, and duration, with the aid of the proposed method together with the evaluation of the functional state of the groups of muscles engaged in work, offers the possibility of revealing the causes of industrial fatigue and overstrain leading to pathological changes in the neuromuscular apparatus of the hands, of prognosticating occupational diseases both under the conditions of the actually existing processing equipment and at the stage of planning new technology and developing pilot production.