• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.81-92
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to classify real somatotype of femalecollegy students by their obesity degree and to investigate cognitive somatotype by their level of body consciousness in female college students. The subjects were 172 female college students aged from 19 to 23 living in Daegu city. Average height of the subjects was 161.3cm. weight was 52.5kg. Rohrer Index was 125.3. BMI was 20.2. Vervaeck Index was 84.0. and percentage of body fat was 26.1. In classification of the subjects by 3 body indexes. lean figure took 37.8-50.0%. normal figure took 45.3-54.6%. and obese figure took 4.7-8.1% and in classification of the subjects by percentage of body fat. lean figure took 39.0%, normal figure took 46.5%. and obese figure took 14.5%. In consciousness and satisfaction about body parts. the subjects recognized that their girth items were . thick'. length items were' short'. and weight was 'heavy'. Also they generally preferred slender and long body.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제33권5호
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• pp.423-432
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• 2014

Objective and Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of individual characteristics, work-related factors, lifestyle factors, and health problems with work ability among aging workers in Korea. Method: In this cross-sectional survey, the study population consisted of 1,594 workers who had participated in a voluntary health promotion center and private workplace. Participants completed the work ability index. Results: The mean WAI score was 37.4, while the mean age of the sample was 43.25. In the age group over 50 showed 36.26. The majority of participants rated their work ability as 'good' to 'excellent', one-third moderate and about 7.5% poor. Work ability decreased significantly with age among the men. The younger group had higher scores on the work ability index than the age group over 50, except for mental resources. By work characteristics, work ability was analyzed to be the lowest in the case of work handling heavy stuff. Lastly, as a result of health factors analysis, the good management and retention of current health status can be the measure helpful to the improvement of work ability. Conclusion and Application: According to the results, it can be a basic principle to devise and enforce preventive measures on the factors for which improvement or action is possible, together with workplace-level systematic approach, in order to improve work ability. For such measures to be realized, it is necessary to check trends in change for several years.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.101-105
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• 2010

According to the Korea National Statistical Office data in 2008, the population over ages of 65 years would possess to 10.7% whole population of Korea in 2009 denoting Korea is already in the aging society. It is well-known that the possibility to work longer and to live better is highly related to the work ability of individuals. The objective of this study is to evaluate the work ability of each aged group using the Work Ability Index(WAI) in the shipbuilding industry, machinery industry and Korea housing corporation, and to assess the effect of the type of business, age and job on the WAI score. The results showed that no significant difference was identified on the effect of aging although work ability of some group(over 55 years) was a little higher than that of others. Also, type of business and job had a significant effect on WAI score. These results suggested that the work ability is not necessarily related to aging in Korean society. One possible explanation for this might be different cultural characteristics of Korean society.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.27-34
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to evaluate aging (young and old), gender (male and female), and handle shape effects on grip force, finger force, and subjective comfort. Four handle shapes of A, D, I, and V were implemented by a multi-finger force measurement (MFFM) system which was developed to measure every finger force with different grip spans. Forty young (20 males and 20 females) and forty old (20 males and 20 females) subjects participated in twelve gripping tasks and rated their comfort for all handles using a 5-point scale. Grip forces were calculating by summation of all four forces of the index, middle, ring and little fingers. Results showed that young males (283.2N) had larger gripping force than old males (235.6N), while young females (151.4N) had lower force than old females (153.6N). Young subjects exerted the largest gripping force with D-shape due to large contribution of the index and middle fingers and the smallest with A-shape; however, old subjects exerted the largest with I-shape and the smallest with V-shape due to small contribution of the ring and little fingers. As expected, the middle finger had the largest finger force and the little finger had the smallest. The fraction of contribution of index and ring fingers to grip force differed among age groups. Interestingly, young subjects provided larger index finger force than ring finger force, whereas old subjects showed that larger ring finger forces than index finger force in the griping tasks. In the relationship between performance and subjective comfort, I-shape exerting the largest grip force had less comfort than D-shape producing the second largest grip force. The findings of this study can provide guidelines on designing hand tool handle to obtain better performance as well as users' comfort.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.203-209
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• 2018

Background: Night shift work is associated with many problems such as sleep deprivation, sleepiness, decreased cognitive performance, increased human errors, and fatigue. This study set out to measure cognitive performance, melatonin rhythms, and sleep after different consecutive night shifts (7 vs. 4) among control room operators (CORs). Methods: The participants included 60 CORs with a mean age of 30.2 years (standard deviation, 2.0) from a petrochemical complex located in Southern Iran. Cognitive performance was assessed using the n-back task and continuous performance test. To evaluate melatonin, saliva was collected and tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. To assess sleep and sleepiness, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Karolinska Sleepiness Scale were used, respectively. Results: Individuals who worked 7 consecutive night shifts had a significantly better cognitive performance and sleep quality than those who worked 4 consecutive night shifts. However, salivary melatonin profile and sleepiness trend were not affected by shift type. Conclusion: The main duty of CORs working night shifts at the studied industry included managing safety-critical processes through complex displays; a responsibility that demands good cognitive performance and alertness. It is suggested that an appropriate number of consecutive night shifts in a rotating shift system should be planned with the ultimate aim of improving CROs performance/alertness and enhancing safety.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.47-58
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• 1994

The purpose of this study was to obtain the basic data for a design for comfort wear. The subjects of this study were 197 women's university stu- dents. The characteristics of their body types and the thickness of subcuta- neous fat at eight body sites were measured. The thickness of subcutaneous fat was measured by both Ultrasonics and with a Skinfold Caliper. The cor- relation between their values and the thickness of subcutaneous fat were compared. The relationship between Rohrer Index and the subject's self- conception of their body was also compared. The results were as follows: 1. The measurement of thickness of subcutaneous fat at triceps and scapula was a little lower, in using Skinfold Caliper method, than Ultrasonics method because of the pressure of the caliper. 2. Correlation between percentage of fat in body and body characteristics was high in order of chest girth > weight > abdomen girth. 3. The thickness of subcutaneous 8 body these sites was high in order of thigh > triceps > scapula > abdomen > suprailiac > chest > calf > forearm. Percentage of body fat has a positive correlation with both average thickness of subcutaneous fat and thickness of subcutaneous fat at triceps. 4. Rohrer Index shows a positive correlation between average thickness of subcutaneous fat and percentage of body fat. 5. About half of subjects of this study thought that they were obese although the data proved otherwise.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.35-46
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• 2002

This study was performed to determine the voluntary range of joint mobility for middle-aged Korean adults. One hundred and eighty-eight subjects(99 males and 89 females) at the age range of 40 to 60 participated for this study. Thirty body movements at various joints were conducted to measure the range of joint mobility. Subjects were grouped by Rohrer's into four based on 25th percentile. The data were analyzed to see the differences of range of joint mobility between sexes and Rohrer's index groups. The results of this study and previous studies were compared to see the differences of range of joint mobility due to the aging. Results of this study indicate that females are generally more flexible than males. Significant differences were found to exist in fourteen movement between sexes and in ten movements, females have larger range of joint mobility than males. There were no significant differences in range of joint mobility may have a tendency to decrease with ages. The results of this study provide important information in dynamic dimensions for middle-aged Korean and can be used to design the various and work places for the middle-aged.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.57-64
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• 2007

In the world, the old population is growing fast and many countries went into an advanced age society. Therefore the development of everyday products, electric appliances, and welfare services considering old people is more important than ever. In particular, the complexity of products can cause many problems for old people. Universal design is an approach to create environments and products that recognizes the diversity of users, regardless of their ability or age. Universality evaluation for a product is very important to verify old people's accessibility and usability for the product. Universality means how good a product was designed in view of universal design principles. In this study, UNIX, a method to evaluate the universality of a product was developed. UNIX was based on seven universal design principles; equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, size and space for approach and use. UNIX is a kind of expert evaluation and very simple method. The method is consisted of two steps. In the first step, relative weights for seven principles and subjective ratings on design suitability for each principle are obtained. In the second step, universality index (UNIX) of each product is obtained by weighted average multiplying relative weights and rating scores. As a case study, this method was applied for mouse designs. In conclusion, this method could be effectively applied to evaluate the universality of a product.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.65-70
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• 2005

Evaluation of repetitiveness for upper extremity intensive tasks is essential to determine the level of risk for upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders at the workplace. However, experimental data available to establish the acceptable levels of repetitiveness for various postures and forces is lacking. The present study examined the maximum acceptable frequencies(MAFs; motions/min.) of shoulder, elbow, wrist, and index finger motions at different forces(1kgf and 4kgf for shoulder, elbow, and wrist; 0.25kgf and 1 kgf for index finger) in sitting. Seventeen right-handed males in 20s without having any history musculoskeletal disorders participated in the MAF experiment. The participants determined their MAFs for the upper extremity motions by using the self-adjustment method and their work pulse(increase in heart rate; beats/min.) and rating of perceived exertion(RPE) were measured when working at MAF. The MAFs of elbow, wrist, and index finger motions for each force level were about 2, 3, and 6 times the corresponding MAF(9 at the high force and 24 at the low force) of shoulder motion and the MAFs at the low force increased about 2 times those at the high force. The work pulses of elbow, wrist, and index finger motions for each force level were 70%, 50%, and 30% of the corresponding work pulse(17 at the high force and 12 at the low force) of shoulder motion and the work pulses at the low force were about 70 % of those at the high force. Lastly, the RPEs of the upper extremity regions were about level 3(moderate) or below.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.51-62
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• 2006

The concept of universal design has recently emerged as an important aspect of product design. Universal design is considerably analogous to ergonomic design in a way that it takes the capabilities and limitations of users into consideration during the product development process. However, relatively few studies have been devoted to reflect the practical use of ergonomic principles on universal design. This research attempts to develop a universal design index for mobile phone design to quantify how well a product complies with principles of universal design. The research also emphasizes on ergonomic principles as a basis of evaluation. A generation of the evaluation items was done by cross-checking among the personal, activity and product components. Personal components consist of human characteristics including age, physique, perceptual capacity, life-style, etc. Activity components were derived from those scenarios of mobile phone use while product components were composed of the parts to which a user interacts. Further analysis systematically generated a universal index from relationship matrices among the three components. The index was then used to test its suitability by applying to the evaluation of mobile phones currently on the market. This study demonstrates a development process through which evaluations can be made possible for universal design. The research suggests an improved approach to the appraisal of how well mobile phones are universally designed based on ergonomic principles.