Wearables for Monitoring and Postural Feedback in the Work Context: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Wearables offer a promising solution for simultaneous posture monitoring and/or corrective feedback. The main objective was to identify, synthesise, and characterise the wearables used in the workplace to monitor and postural feedback to workers. The PRISMA-ScR guidelines were followed. Studies were included between 1 January 2000 and 22 March 2023 in Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese without geographical restriction. The databases selected for the research were PubMed®, Web of Science®, Scopus®, and Google Scholar®. Qualitative studies, theses, reviews, and meta-analyses were excluded. Twelve studies were included, involving a total of 304 workers, mostly health professionals (n = 8). The remaining studies covered workers in the industry (n = 2), in the construction (n = 1), and welders (n = 1). For assessment purposes, most studies used one (n = 5) or two sensors (n = 5) characterised as accelerometers (n = 7), sixaxial (n = 2) or nonaxialinertial measurement units (n = 3). The most common source of feedback was the sensor itself (n = 6) or smartphones (n = 4). Haptic feedback was the most prevalent (n = 6), followed by auditory (n = 5) and visual (n = 3). Most studies employed prototype wearables emphasising kinematic variables of human movement. Healthcare professionals were the primary focus of the study along with haptic feedback that proved to be the most common and effective method for correcting posture during work activities.

A Rapid Review on the Effectiveness and Use of Wearable Biofeedback Motion Capture Systems in Ergonomics to Mitigate Adverse Postures and Movements of the Upper Body

“…Vibration and auditory feedback emerged as the most common modalities in the current review, aligning with findings from Figueira et al [ 69 ]. Conversely, García-Jaén et al [ 68 ] noted auditory feedback as the most common modality, while visual and/or vibrotactile feedback was most common in the review by Lee et al [ 66 ].…”

“…In the field of ergonomics, research on the effectiveness of augmented feedback from wearable motion capture sensor systems to reduce adverse postures and movements has primarily emerged in the last 10–20 years [ 45 , 66 , 67 ]. Recent overviews and reviews indicate that feedback typically involves audio, vibration, or visual feedback, or a combination of the three [ 45 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 ].…”

“…Subsequently, two additional reviews on augmented feedback have been published [ 68 , 69 ]. The systematic review by García-Jaén et al [ 68 ] included eight studies focusing on the lumbar spine.…”

“…While acknowledging the need for further investigations, particularly long-term studies, they did not systematically assess the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of biofeedback and omitted several studies that examined feedback to improve back postures, which were included in the overview by Lind et al [ 45 ] (e.g., Doss et al [ 74 ] and Lind et al [ 71 , 77 ]). Similarly, Figueira et al’s review [ 69 ], comprising twelve articles, provided an overview of the literature regarding feedback modalities, targeted anatomical regions, and workplace settings. However, it did not undertake an assessment of methodological quality or the strength of evidence pertaining to the efficacy of biofeedback in mitigating adverse postures or other outcomes.…”

Recent Advances in Wearable Healthcare Devices: From Material to Application

“…Micro-electromechanical-systems (MEMS) technology makes IMUs portable and wearable [178]. Wearable IMUs are widely used in gait parameters [179,180], Parkinsonian and seizure attack detection [181], monitoring exercise [181], postural feedback [182], human movements analysis [183], HMI [184], and so on.…”