Evaluation of subjective perceived rating for grip strength depending on handedness for various target force levels

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Measurement of hand exertion is very important to quantify the risk of Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) in manufacturing fields. Although a direct measurement is the most accurate way to quantify physical load, it is expensive and time consuming. To solve this limitation, a subjective self-report method has been proposed as a possible alternative. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the accuracy of subjective perception for grip force exertions associated with handedness (dominant and non-dominant hands). METHODS: A total of nine healthy adults participated in this study. All participants were asked to exert hand grip forces for randomly selected target force levels without any information about the actual target force levels. Then, participants were also asked to rate the subjective perception of their exertion level using % Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC) after each hand grip force exertion. RESULTS: The trend of subjective perception for various target force levels was different according to the handedness. In the case of the dominant hand, participants tend to rate less MVC levels (under-estimation) than the actual target force levels at lower than 50% MVC, whereas they tend to rate more MVC levels (over-estimation) than the actual target force levels at higher than 50% MVC, respectively. In case of non-dominant hand, generally participants showed over-estimate for all levels of MVCs in this study. CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of this study, subjective perception of exertion showed different patterns on the handedness (S-shape for dominant hand vs. over-estimation for non-dominant hand) for various target force levels. Therefore, it would be necessary to apply different criteria for each hand to evaluate subjective perception of hand grip exertion tasks.

Relationship between ulnar collateral ligament thickness and joint hypermobility in young adults

“…Studies have identified significant overlap between the anterior bundle of the UCL and flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) tendon insertion (45.6%; 95% CI: 38.1-53.6), and demonstrated that muscle activation of the finger flexors reduced humeroulnar joint gap under valgus stress 25,27 . A study by Kong et al 28 found variability in self-perceived percentages of maximum voluntary grip strength based on hand dominance; rates of contraction in the dominant hand were routinely underestimated, while rates of contraction in the non-dominant hand were routinely over-estimated. These findings may indicate a more nuanced role of FDS in providing valgus stability.…”

Examining the Alignment between Subjective Effort and Objective Force Production

“…However, research directly investigating how perceived effort aligns with the targeted objective performance relative to maximum capacity has led to mixed results 32,33 , suggesting a nonlinear alignment pattern. This indicates that changes in the perceived effort do not map onto respective changes in objective performance in a way that is directly equivalent 32,34 .…”

Gender-Based Differences in Actual Thumb Force Exertions at Various Target Force Levels

“…Previous studies that evaluated perceived ratings of grip strength indicated a nonlinear relationship between the perceived and actual force of exertion [11]. Pinchvero et al [17,18] also reported a nonlinear relationship between the perceived and actual force of exertion.…”

“…Park and Yun [10] also estimated grip force exertion using the Borg's CR-10 scale and found that the correlation between the measured force and the perceived exertion ranged from 0.8 to 0.99. Kong et al [11] and Prasad and Manivannan [12] reported that the perception of handgrip force differed according to the handedness. Therefore, while substantial research has already been conducted on grip strength, very few studies investigated thumb force exertion levels and self-reporting estimates, even though the thumb plays a major role in various manual tasks [13][14][15].…”