Estimation of Upper Limb Loading on EMTs during Patient Handling Tasks by Electromyography

• Main Authors: Wei-ChengChen, 陳韋丞
• Other Authors: MING-YI LIN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/u78k72

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 工業與資訊管理學系 === 104 === According to the survey by BLS in 2014, the proportion of case of health care workers suffering from musculoskeletal disorders is 46.9% in America and there is an increasing trend in prevalence, second only to the transportation and warehousing industry. And the neck, lower back and shoulder are among the body that tend to be troublesome by musculoskeletal disorders. The past research, however usually focus on low back with a limited focus on the upper limb such as shoulder. Meanwhile, some scholars also indicate that the weight of the patient is an important risk factor that causes musculoskeletal disorders. Therefore this research would investigate the loading of upper limb muscles when performing the different types of patient-handling tasks. We recruited 18 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) to participant in this research, there are six kinds of tasks and two kinds of patient weights handled, along with two benchmark boxes(15/23kg). We use Electromyography (EMG) to record muscle activity from Upper trapezius, Middle trapezius, Middle deltoid, Anterior deltoid, Pectoralis major, Biceps brachii, External oblique abdominis and Erector spinae. After post-signal processing, this research would calculate Electrical Activity value was used as an index in time domain; Frequency analyses are based on the resulting mean frequency after Wavelet and Hilbert-Huang transform. The result indicated that side lifting patients and pushing the patients from a stretcher to a bed lead to higher muscle activity on neck and shoulder; lifting patients from the ground to the stretcher by longboard lead to greater muscle activity and increased mean frequency around the waist. Moreover, during the team task, the muscle activity around shoulder of the follower was higher than that of the leader while shifting the patient from the stretcher to the bed by a soft stretcher; and when uprighting the longboard with the patient, leader’s muscle activity tended to be higher than those from the follower in all muscles, except Erector spinae. In conclusion, EA is more sensitive to the difference caused by muscle activity compared to mean frequency, we have found that the EMT can’t aware the risk of handling tasks fully based on subjective rating, and this in turn could increase the risk of injury because of the misjudgment.