International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics最新文献

Addressing the social determinants of health (SDOH) is imperative to achieving health equity.

The field of human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) has started to consider SDOH in influencing patient work, but has not yet extensively encompassed SDOH in patient work system models. Using transportation access to maternal health services as a case study, this research sought to enhance the patient work system framework to include sub-factors specific to SDOH. Following a model of community-based participatory research, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 individuals who were pregnant within the last five years, identified as low-income, and identified as having one or more racial or ethnic minoritized identities. Thirty-three secondary themes and 28 tertiary themes were derived inductively under the deductive framework of the consolidated patient work system. Unique sub-factors of the patient work system were identified, expanding our current understanding of the dimensionalities of the patient work system. Sub-factors were mostly expanded in the domains of the physical and organizational environments. HF/E researchers and practitioners, in partnership with other disciplines and communities, should expand work system models to purposefully incorporate a range of work system factors that stem from SDOH. Extending these models produces a holistic view of systems, providing a better foundation to align design interventions with the contextual realities of marginalized populations who experience health inequities.

In order for human factors professionals to develop technologies and tools that can benefit all, research studies must have a diverse participant population that reflects the user population. In this article, the authors discuss barriers to participation and strategies to increase recruitment and promote retention throughout the research process. Case studies are also shared to portray both how the barriers can negatively impact a study if ignored and how they have been successfully overcome. Finally, strategies synthesized from the literature and the article are combined and presented to support future research studies.

Combining virtual reality (VR) with rehabilitation robots has the potential to enhance rehabilitation training and neural functional recovery. However, there is limited research on designing VR scenes and evaluating the impact of such systems on participants' cognitive and experiential aspects when using rehabilitation robots. This study aimed to examine the effects of different gaming modes (first-person perspective and third-person perspective) and robot involvement on participants' motivation, experience, task load, and engagement. Thirty-two participants underwent gait rehabilitation training, providing feedback on their experiences after each condition. The findings revealed that the first-person perspective mode increased motivation, experience, task performance, and engagement. On the other hand, robot-assisted participation improved motivation but decreased the overall experience. These results indicate that the first-person perspective mode takes precedence over the third-person perspective mode in terms of embodied gaming and the development of rehabilitation tasks.

Introduction

The disproportionate distribution of healthcare resources in the U.S. leads to an annual estimated 68,000 critically-ill newborns transported to regional centers for intensive care. As described in the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) 3.0 framework, patients with limited access to healthcare experience multiple healthcare settings in their journey to specialty care. Little is known about community resources for transported neonatal patients in the Pacific Northwest region.

Methods

Transport data from January 2014–December 2019 identified referral zip codes for transfers to a regional neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Using the SEIPS 3.0 framework to explore the journey of families experiencing neonatal complications, we linked referral zip codes to data on healthcare and resource access including: Health Transportation Shortage Index (HTSI); US Census Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates; public transportation availability; Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and number of Federally Qualified Health Centers.

Results

1834 neonatal transports from 75 zip codes were analyzed. Forty percent of patients were transferred from a HPSA, one-quarter from areas with limited public transit availability (28%) and household internet access (24%). Almost all infants transferred from a high HTSI area (96%) were transported by air.

Conclusion

Many patients were referred from communities with high poverty and limited services. Improving patient outcomes requires population and policy level recommendations and care coordination between healthcare organizations and community services. Considering the patient family perspective within the SEIPS 3.0 framework will ensure patient centered care and an inclusive experience for families transitioning through healthcare settings.

As exoskeletons and exosuits rapidly transition from laboratory to practice, the thermal discomfort posed by wearing the devices is emerging as a significant challenge towards their widespread adoption. We use a thermal manikin coupled with a thermoregulation model to evaluate the thermal properties and thermophysiological impacts of such devices. We measure thermal and evaporative resistances of summer and full clothing coupled with a legacy low-back supporting exosuit and its successor that features two design alterations to improve the user's thermal comfort. We quantify the decrease in evaporative resistance provided by substantial perforation of the back portion of the updated exosuit. The thermal manikin can replicate local skin temperature decrease associated with a release of a dual-mode thigh body attachment measured during a prior human trial. Using the thermal manikin coupled with a thermoregulation model, we simulate how the updated exosuit with several levels of assumed metabolic rate reduction impacts sweat rate, skin and core temperature changes during multiple work-rest cycles in a hot and humid climate. While a large metabolic rate reduction (>15%) is required to significantly slow the core temperature increase, even a minor metabolic rate reduction (5%) could provide a substantial reduction (20%) in the sweat rate (i.e. could reduce dehydration). Results suggest that thermal manikins with a thermoregulation model are an effective and efficient platform for comparing exosuit design features and for improving their thermal aspects. Our study highlights the comprehensive method and importance of considering thermal aspects when designing exosuits for occupational use.

To improve the comfort of seat support performance, we proposed a seat dimensions design method. First, an adjustable seat was used to obtain the measurement data of user-selected comfortable seat dimensions. Second, the differences in the measurement data of different body types and riding time variables were analyzed. Third, a compromise treatment method for the different comfort requirements was developed. This method was applied to the design of passenger seats for short-distance flights in China. The lumbar support thickness was significantly different in the time variables, and the seat pan inclination and neck support height were significantly different among body types. We did not find significant differences, however, in seat height, backrest inclination, lumbar support height, or neck support thickness according to time or body type variables. There is one optimal dimension for seat height (430.5 mm), backrest inclination (104.2°), lumbar support height (98.8 mm), and neck support thickness (44.4 mm). However, seat pan inclination (5.8°, 7.2°, and 9.3°), neck support height (582.6 mm and 622.5 mm), and lumbar support thickness (40.6 mm and 48.7 mm) need multiple dimensions to meet passenger comfort requirements. This seat dimension design method provides new ideas to explore the comfort requirements of passengers and addresses the differences in comfortable seat dimension requirements for different body types and different flight durations.

Aim

To identify the presence of spinal pain and compare spine curvatures, mobility, and competency according to spine region in dentists working in risky postures.

Methods

One hundred twenty-two dentists aged between 18 and 40 years (52 males, 70 females; age: 25.94 ± 3.40 years), who at least in a medium risk group according to the Rapid Entire-Body Assessment (REBA) were included. The Extended Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire for pain and skin-surface Valedo®Shape device (Idiag, Fehraltorf, Switzerland) for spinal curvature, inclination from the center of gravity, mobility, and postural competency were used.

Results

The REBA risk classification was medium (36.1%), high (56.6%), and very high (7.4%). The spinal pain rate in at least one region was 79.5%, and in all regions was 34.4%. The pain was in the neck (62.3%), mid-back (60.7%), and low back (53.3%) with the following intensities 4.00 ± 1.64, 4.05 ± 1.89, and 4.09 ± 2.11, respectively. In the sagittal plane, inclination in mobility decreased in the low back pain group (p = 0.045). In the frontal plane, the thoracic curvature angle increased (p = 0.023), and inclination in mobility decreased (p = 0.044) in the mid-back pain group, and postural competency differences in sacral region in the low back pain group were observed (p = 0.037). Dentists experiencing both mid and low back pain showed increased thoracic curvature angle (p = 0.020) and differences in sacral competency (p = 0.044) in the frontal plane.

Conclusion

The regional spinal pain rate with moderate intensity was about 80% in dentists working in risky postures. The mobility and postural competency changes with thoracic curvature increase were observed in dentists who had pain in the mid-back and low back regions.

The complexity and diversity of products significantly increases the difficulty of training workers in modern industries. AR training, as a combination of industrial digital development and new interactive means, has attracted increasingly more attention. However, in human factor and education, research regarding AR based training is still in its infancy. To understand how AR could help industrial training from a human perspective, we evaluate a HoloLens-based AR training method for an assembly task on natural human behavior and the training effectiveness. Forty-four participants were equally divided into AR and ordinary training groups with the equivalent instructional materials, which included text information and 3D models. Results show that although AR did not significantly affect the overall workload and system usability assessment (SUS) recorded, several experimental values increased significantly compared with the ordinary training method, including task completion time, time required to interpret text-based information, amount of attention switching, and training effectiveness. Consequently, the use of AR did not result in a completion time and workload reduction; however, we found that training with the AR system was more effective than ordinary training in increasing the knowledge retention of participants without increasing their overall workload, especially for the month-term memory. Nonetheless, a longer time was required by the users to familiarize themselves with the AR environment and read the text information. The findings of this work could contribute to the design of future AR training systems in industry considering natural human behavior and enhance training effectiveness.