Trunk kinematics and low back pain during pruning among vineyard workers—A field study at the Chateau Larose-Trintaudon

Abstract

The prevalence of low back disorders is dramatically high in viticulture. Field measurements that objectively quantify work exposure can provide information on the relationship between the adopted trunk postures and low back pain. The purposes of the present study were three-fold (1) to carry out a kinematics analysis of vineyard-workers’ pruning activity by extracting the duration of bending and rotation of the trunk, (2) to question separately the relationship between the duration of forward bending or trunk rotation with low back pain intensity and pressure pain sensitivity and (3) to question the relationship between the combined duration of forward bending and trunk rotation on low back pain intensity and pressure pain sensitivity. Fifteen vineyard-workers were asked to perform pruning activity for 12 minutes with a wireless triaxial accelerometer placed on their trunk. Kinematic analysis of the trunk showed that vineyard-workers spent more than 50% of the time with the trunk flexed greater than 30° and more than 20% with the trunk rotated greater than 10°. These results show that pruning activity lead to the adoption of forward bended and rotated trunk postures that could significantly increase the risk of work related musculoskeletal disorders in the low back. However, this result was mitigated by the observation of an absence of significant association between the duration of forward bending and trunk rotation with low back pain intensity or pressure pain sensitivity. Even if prospective field measurements and studies assessing the effects of low back pain confounders are needed, this field study provides new genuine information on trunk kinematics during pruning activity.

Motion Capture Technology in Industrial Applications: A Systematic Review

“…MoCap techniques for industrial applications were primarily used for the assessment of health and safety risks in the working environment ( Table 6 , 64.4%), whilst fatigue and proper posture were the most targeted issues [ 48 , 49 , 72 ]. The research interest of the industry in health and safety MoCap applications increased steadily over the reviewed period ( Figure 3 , right).…”

Accuracy of identification of low or high risk lifting during standardised lifting situations

“…Other studies suggest to utilise measures of the kinematics of the trunk (Balaguier et al 2017;LagerstedOlsen et al 2016;Lunde et al 2017;Robert-Lachaine et al 2017;Villumsen et al 2016) or a combination of these methods (Samani et al 2012). So far, most studies based on in situ assessments have studied bending and torsion of the trunk but have not provided assessments of the physical loads (Balaguier et al 2017;Villumsen et al 2015Villumsen et al , 2016. The current body of literature reinforces the need for direct objective measures enabling delineation of lifts with low or high risk of contracting low back injuries.…”

Sensor Technologies to Manage the Physiological Traits of Chronic Pain: A Review

“…On the contrary, in health sector workers, the amount of sitting time is inversely related with lumbar pain intensity [152]. In another working area, results reported in [153] showed that grape-pruning activity leads to the adoption of curved and forward folded trunk postures inducing a significant risk of lumbar musculoskeletal disorders.…”

“…This scenario justifies current efforts for the development of objective physical activity evaluation systems for the identification of pain-related activities (breast pain, headache, etc.) [137,138], for the evaluation of pain intensity [139][140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147], for the detection of postures, movements or activities that can produce pain [148][149][150][151][152][153], or for the improvement of quality of life and a reduction of pain intensity [154][155][156][157][158].…”