The Effects of Industrial Protective Gloves and Hand Skin Temperatures on Hand Grip Strength and Discomfort Rating.

Mohamed Ramadan

doi:10.3390/ijerph14121506

Abstract

Daily working activities and functions require a high contribution of hand and forearm muscles in executing grip force. To study the effects of wearing different gloves on grip strength, under a variety of hand skin temperatures, an assessment of the maximum grip strength was performed with 32 healthy male workers with a mean age (standard deviation) of 30.44 (5.35) years wearing five industrial gloves at three hand skin temperatures. Their ages and anthropometric characteristics including body mass index (BMI), hand length, hand width, hand depth, hand palm, and wrist circumference were measured. The hand was exposed to different bath temperatures (5 °C, 25 °C, and 45 °C) and hand grip strength was measured using a Jamar hydraulic hand dynamometer with and without wearing the gloves (chemical protection glove, rubber insulating glove, anti-vibration impact glove, cotton yarn knitted glove, and RY-WG002 working glove). The data were analyzed using the Shapiro–Wilk test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Tukey test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the within-subject design analysis. The results showed that wearing gloves significantly affected the maximum grip strength. Wearing the RY-WG002 working glove produced a greater reduction on the maximum grip when compared with the bare hand, while low temperatures (5 °C) had a significant influence on grip when compared to medium (25 °C) and high (45 °C) hand skin temperatures. In addition, participants felt more discomfort in both environmental extreme conditions. Furthermore, they reported more discomfort while wearing neoprene, rubber, and RY-WG002 working gloves.

Highlights

Grip strength is an important aspect of all working activities in daily active life in which workers use their hands in manual operations such as construction material mixing, manual materials handling, carpentry, plumbing and shoveling
One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to test whether the effect of executing the experiment daily could increase hand muscle strength, which may influence the experimental results
This study investigated the effects of local cooling and heating of the hand on hand grip strength using five different industrial gloves.ofThe results showed handofcooling had on a greater influence

Summary

Introduction

Grip strength is an important aspect of all working activities in daily active life in which workers use their hands in manual operations such as construction material mixing, manual materials handling, carpentry, plumbing and shoveling. Workers who operate hand-held power tools, who are occupationally exposed to hand-transmitted vibration, which is associated with various disorders of the hand and arm [1,2,3], require hand protection using gloves. These operations are likely to occur in outdoor environments. Ergonomists must consider this environmental issue when designing equipment used by workers in their daily working life due to the fact that hand gripping is an essential element of Taylor et al [4], as well as Bedford [5], reported that there is a positive relationship between mean hand skin temperature and the environmental air temperature which influences the body’s thermal exchanges with the thermal environment.

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