Thermographic differences due to dynamic work tasks on individuals with different obesity levels: a preliminary study

Abstract

Obesity has been identified as a potential risk factor for Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WRMSD). However, literature shows that more studies are required about obesity effects on work performance, including during lifting tasks. Infrared Thermography (IRT) has been emerged as an 10 alternative technique to study WRMSD risk factors. Therefore, the current study aims at testing whether skin temperatures (T skin ) changes are sensitive to work conditions during lifting tasks. The second goal of this work is to analyse possible differences in T skin changes across individuals with different obesity levels. By applying IRT imaging this study considered 29 participants with different obesity levels, for a repetitive lifting task between floor and shoulders height with a periodicity of 7 seconds up to 2 minutes. Thermal 15 images were registered across 16 Regions Of Interest (ROI) (divided into body anterior and posterior views). Data analysis was performed from the temperatures differential, calculated as the algebric difference between T skin measured before and after the task. This T skin difference presented statistical evidence (p < 0.05 for all ROI), with a decrease after the task. The average T skin decrease of the 8 ROI for anterior view was 0.33(±0.08)ºC and for posterior view was 0.51(±0.08)ºC, being an indicator of muscular 20 overload increased. Results show a relation between the obese participants and the presence of higher cooling in the ROI studied, following the lifting task. These outcomes corroborate that obesity is a WRMSD risk factor and also provides evidence that IRT can be a useful tool to assess the participants' biomechanics performance.

Muscular Strength Imbalances Are not Associated with Skin Temperature Asymmetries in Soccer Players

“…Recently, several studies have used infrared thermography (IRT) in the medical diagnosis for different pathologies [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. IRT is a non-invasive technique that is low-cost (i.e., compared to isokinetic dynamometer), painless, contactless, non-ionizing radiation and innocuous; besides, it allows the evaluation of skin temperature (T skin ) in real-time [ 13 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Studies have suggested that bilateral differences greater than 0.5 or 0.7 °C have been associated with physiological abnormalities [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”