• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.101-106
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• 2010

The purposes of this paper are to investigate an effect of weight of material and gender on postural stability and to introduce formulas for those. There were five levels of weights 0, 9, 18, 27 and 36 kg, and two levels of genders were conducted. Eight male and five female subjects participated in this experiment, ten tests were performed for each level of weights to measure the postural stability by using the stability platform. The effect of the genders and the load on the postural stability were statistically analysed by the two way ANOVA test and the regression analysis. The ANOVA test showed that the effect of weights was statistically significant on postural stability to the both male and female subjects. And the postural stability of female subjects was better than that of male subjects. A linear regression formula for the balancing time and the load and a formula for the reduction rate postural stability and the relative load were introduced by the regression analysis.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2000

This study investigated the effect of anticipatory postural adjustment on balance performance in postural disturbance. Any action performed by standing subject is generally accompanied by compensatory postural activities, which reduce or abolish the postural disturbance generated by the movement and keep the subjects' center of gravity within the supporting base. These Postural activities arc triggered by either anticipatory and feedback postural control. We studied the difference of anticipatory and feedback postural control in postural disturbance. The subjects were standing on a foot plate with eyes closed, holding a lead of $5\%$ of their own body weight in their hands. The condition of anticipatory postural adjustment was applied voluntarily releases the a load. The condition of feedback postural control was applied that the load was unpredictably removed. We concluded that anticipatory postural adjustment becomes more efficient to postural performance in postural disturbance.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.223-231
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• 2002

Recently, work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) have rapidly increased and have been a major issue in the field of industrial safety. Of several physical risk factors for WMSDs, which include postures, vibration, repetitive work, speed or acceleration of movements, etc., awkward postures have been known as one of the major causes of WMSDs. For reducing the potential for injury as a result of postures, cost effective quantification of the magnitude for physical exposure to poor working postures is important and needed. To do this, several postural classification schemes have been developed and used in industrial sites. It is known that perceived discomfort for joint motions and muscle strength for females were much less than those for males. However, the existing postural classification schemes were developed without considering these gender effects. This study aims to develop a new postural classification scheme for female workers, based on the perceived discomfort for joint motions. The result showed that there was significant difference between the schemes for female and male. It was also found that when compared with OWAS, RULA and REBA, postural load was quantified more precisely with the developed scheme. It is recommended that different schemes according to gender of workers involved in work be used in order to accurately evaluate postural load of work postures.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.139-149
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• 2000

This study aims to review and assess the existing postural classification schemes used for evaluating postural loads in industry. The schemes can be classified into three categories: self-report, observational and instrument-based techniques depending upon how to record working postures. Of the three techniques, this study was mainly focused on the observational methods. The observational technique is most widely used in the industrial sites because it does not interfere with work, and is easy and simple to use and cost-effective without requiring the use of expensive equipment for estimating the angular deviation of a body segment from the neutral position. In spite of the usefulness and applicability, the techniques have some problems: 1) The existing observational techniques lack the consistency in the class limits of the motion categories in each body segment; 2) Most of them do not provide the post-analysis criteria needed to judge whether or not any posture is acceptable in view point of the postural load; and 3) They can not precisely evaluate the postural load for a given posture because the external loads and dynamic factors including acceleration, moment and force were not taken into consideration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.38-44
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• 2010

We investigated the effects of trunk twist on postural stability during manually handling flat ties. Ten male subjects participated in this study. While handling 5kgf and 10kgf bundles of flat ties respectively, their centers of pressure (COPs) were measured under two levels of body position (twisted and fixed), two levels of direction (left and right), and three levels of object position ($30^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$, and $60^{\circ}$). Subjects' postural stability was quantified by calculating the sway length. Results showed that the effect of different object position was significant on postural sway length in subject's medio-lateral axis. Post-hoc multiple comparions revealed that, under the 5kgf load condition, the sway length was increased significantly as the object position increased to $45^{\circ}$. Under the 10kgf load condition, however, the sway length was increased significantly at the object position of $60^{\circ}$. Actual or potential applications of this research include guidelines for the design of working posture evaluation techniques.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively investigate the effects of external load upper extremity posture on perceived discomfort. An experiment was conducted for measuring discomfort scores depending upon external loads and upper extremity postures, in which the free modules and numeric estimate method of the magnitude estimation was adopted as a tool for obtaining discomfort ratings. The upper extremity postures were controlled by wrist flexion/extension, elbow foexion, shoulder flexion, and shoulder adduction/abduction. The results showed that all experimental variables except shoulder adduction/abduction were significant at ${\alpha}$=0.01 or 0.05. The effect of external load was very much larger than that of upper extremity postures. Therefore, it is recommended that a new posture classification scheme taking effect of external load to into consideration be developed for quantifying postural load.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.97-106
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• 2002

Purpose. This study was tried to compare the effect of the change in postural deviation caused by the pain side Subjects and Methods. Inpatients and outpatients (n=71) were selected from I hospital who have a musculoskeletal low back pain and shoulder pain without any history of the central nervous system (CNS) lesions, orthopaedic problems of the both lower extremities, or the vestibular and the visual default. For the control group, normal and healthy subjects (n=30) were selected without any history of weight bearing disorders. the weight bearing was rated by the computerized force plate. Results. 1) Postural deviation was not significant difference between patients and control group(p<0.01). But postural deviation in patients was more pronounced than control group. 2) There was significant difference of postural deviation between in patients according to the pain side(p<0.01). When the pain side was on the left side, postural deviation tended to the right. When the pain side was on the right side and vertebral body, postural deviation tended to the left. 3) There was no significant difference of postural deviation between regional pain in shoulder and regional pain in low back(p<0.01). Discussions and Conclusion. As a result, the pain, for sure, affected the good posture and its keeping process directly or/and indirectly. Therefore, as the postural deviation increases, the additional energy consumption increased by the works of the muscles to keep the good posture. Preponderated postural deviation, furthermore, could load too much to the musculoskeletal system, leading to increase the pain. The postural deviation, a result of the pain, can cause a secondary deformity of the distal area as a compensatory reaction, and this compensation actually become a cause of the musculoskeletal symptom back in a cycle. Therefore, the appropriate treatment of the musculoskeletal problem and the education of the posture correction should be given to decrease the pain, preventing the secondary deformities, and increasing muscle energy efficiency of the posture remaining muscles.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.76-83
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• 2004

This study aimed to empirically investigate perceived discomfort depending upon external load, upper limb postures and their holding time. Discomfort was obtained through an experiment, in which external load, wrist flexion/extension, elbow flexion, shoulder flexion and adduction/abduction were used as experimental variables. The subjects were instructed to hold given postures for 60s and to rate their subjective discomfort scores at 5s, 20s, 40s and 60s by using the free modulus method of magnitude estimation. The results showed that while only external load and elbow flexion were statistically significant at the holding time of 5s at ${\alpha}=0.05$ or 0.10, external load and upper limb postures excluding shoulder adduction/abduction significantly affected discomfort ratings at 20s, 40s and 60s at ${\alpha}=0.01$ or 0.05. Discomfort scores were also significantly different between four posture holding times at ${\alpha}=0.01$. The effects of external load and holding time were much larger than those of upper limb postures. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that external load and holding time as well as working postures betaken into consideration to precisely quantify postural load in industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.19 no.4 s.68
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• pp.123-128
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• 2004

This study investigated effect of arm posture, repetition of wrist motion and external load on perceived discomfort. The arm postures were controlled by shoulder flexion, elbow flexion, and ist motions such as flexion, extension, radial deviation and ulnar deviation. An experiment was conducted to measure discomfort scores for experimental treatments using the magnitude estimation, in which the L16 orthogonal array was adopted for reducing the size of experiment. The results showed that while the effect of the shoulder flexion, repetition of wrist motion and external load was statistically significant at $\alpha=0.05$or 0.10, that of the elbow and wrist motions was not. Discomfor ratings increased linearly as levels of wrist repetition and external load increased. This implies that the existing posture classification schemes such as OWAS, RULA, which do not properly consider effect of motion repetition and external load, may underestimate postural load. Based on the regression equation for wrist repetition and external load, isocomfort region indicating the region within which discomfort scores were expected to be the same was proposed. It is recommended that when assessing risk of postures or developing new posture classification schemes, motion repetition and external load as well as posture itself be fully taken into consideration for precisely evaluating postural stress.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive posture classification scheme considering the effects of external load and motion repetition as well as those of working posture. The scheme was developed based on a series of existing empirical studies dealing with postural classification scheme, effects of external load and motion repetition. Ranges of joint motions, external load and motion repetition were divided into the groups with the same degree of discomforts. Each group was assigned a numerical relative discomfort score of code on the basis of discomfort values for the neutral position of elbow flexion. The criteria for evaluating stress of working postures were proposed based on the four distinct action categories, in order to enable practitioners to apply appropriate corrective actions. The proposed scheme was compared with OWAS, RULA and REBA. The comparison revealed that while the proposed scheme and RULA showed similar results for the working postures with light external load and non-repetitive postures, the former overestimated postural load for postures with moderate or heavy external load and repetitive postures than the latter.