Exploring study protocols examining muscle fatigue among transportation and transshipment operators: a systematic review

Abstract

Transportation and transshipment are essential to logistics, which is necessary for enhancing economic growth. Work-related muscle fatigue is widely acknowledged as one of the significant contributors to losses in occupational safety and health. This study was conducted to review applicable electromyography examining protocols and indicators. Three of the available relevant electronic databases were systematically searched, as well as other search engines with a total of 733 articles found. Only 13 articles were considered corresponding to the inclusion criteria. Examining protocols in muscle fatigue assessment were used during real-time, several sessions, beforeafter of the operation and the simulation tasks. Time domain (Root Mean Square: RMS, muscle activity, Maximum Voluntary Contraction: MVC) and frequency domain (Mean Frequency: MNF, Median Frequency: MDF) functioned as fatigue EMG indicators. The Real-time protocol appeared to provide the most comprehensive information, required for an intensive result. Although less information was collected, other study protocols still showed their capability of muscle fatigue investigation, particularly in some cases with limitation from real-world operation tasks.