Abstract
There are several problems involved with introducing assistive technologies, which amplify human physical strength or reduce fatigue, to actual environment. One of the problem is that there is the possibility that the muscular strength of the user decline due to the reduction of the physical burden associated with the work. Therefore, the changes in physical performance due to the use of the assistive devices need to be quantitatively evaluated. In this study, a four-week monitoring test (including a two-week trial period) was performed with a total of 30 nursing-care workers in a nursing home. The participants wore an assistive wear “Smart Suit Lite” for two weeks and their subjective fatigue and physical strength were evaluated over the course of the study. The results show that the feeling of fatigue was decreased in each of the subjects by an average of 16% as a result of using the assistive wear. However, there was no significant difference in the subjects’ physical fitness (back-muscle strength, grip strength, sitting–standing capability, standing long-jump ability, or one-legged standing ability), indicating that there was no decrease in physical strength due to the use of the Smart Suit Lite during normal work over two weeks.
Keywords
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Sankai, Y.: HAL: hybrid assistive limb based on cybernics. Robot. Res. 66, 25–34 (2011)
Yamazaki, N., Takahashi, N.: Suit-type back muscle supporter utilizing body surface deformation during care motions. Biomechanism 17, 235–243 (2004). (in Japanese)
Tanaka, T., et al.: 3S assist: the concept of KEIROKA technology. In: ABML 2011, p. 219 (2011). (in Japanese)
Ando, S., Tanaka, T., et al.: A proposal for a model of change of maximum isometric muscle force in step-change workload. J. Robot. Mechatron. 25(6), 1050–1059 (2013)
Takizawa, K., et al.: Are the results of physical fitness tests affected by 6 weeks snow shovelling using different types of shovels? Jpn. J. Physiol. Anthr. 18(2), 87–92 (2013). (in Japanese)
Sato, N., et al.: Effects of long-term corset wearing on chronic low back pain. Fukushima J. Med. Sci. 58(1), 60–65 (2012)
Imamura, Y., Tanaka, T., et al.: Motion-based-design of elastic material for passive assistive device using musculoskeletal model. J. Robot. Mechatron. 23(6), 978–990 (2011)
Bergmark, A.: Stability of the lumbar spine: a study in mechanical engineering. Acta Orthop. 60(S230), 1–54 (1989)
Cholewicki, J., Juluru, K., et al.: Lumbar spine stability can be augmented with an abdominal belt and/or increased intra-abdominal pressure. Eur. Spine J. 8(5), 388–395 (1999)
Nachemson, A.L.: The lumbar spine: an orthop. Chall. Spine 1(1), 59–71 (1976)
Imamura, Y., Tanaka, T., et al.: Postural stabilization by trunk tightening force generated by passive power-assist device. In: The 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, pp. 2836–2839 (2013)
Bruton, A.: Muscle plasticity: response to training and detraining. Physiotherapy 88(7), 398–408 (2002)
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the aid provided for the project of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) “FY2012 Welfare Equipment Practical Development Expenditure Practical development of KEIROKA Suit to reduce burden and fatigue of nursing-care work”, and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 17K12763.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Imamura, Y., Tanaka, T., Takizawa, K. (2017). Field Testing of the Influence of Assistive Wear on the Physical Fitness of Nursing-Care Workers. In: Kheddar, A., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10652. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70022-9_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70022-9_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70021-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70022-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)