title: Modeling of predictive muscular strength for sustained one-handed carrying task.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Manual materials handling (MMH) tasks are common. They are considered major contributors of musculoskeletal injuries and are the sources of financial burden for industries in terms of lost work days and worker compensation costs. One-handed carrying is common and could result in arm fatigue.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to establish predictive models for one-handed carrying strength considering weight handed and handedness conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty male subjects were recruited for the study. The subject carried a weight of 6 or 12 kg using either dominant or non-dominant hand lasting a time period of 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, or 4 minutes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that handedness (p <  0.0001), weight (p <  0.05), and time period (p <  0.0001) were all significant factors affecting single arm carrying strength. Predictive models of single arm carrying strength were established under handedness and weight conditions. The MADs of these models ranged from 0.39 to 2.19 kgf.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The exponential function based predictive models may be adopted to describe the single arm carrying strength with reasonable predictive errors. The trend of the carrying strength after carrying a load for a certain period may be employed to describe muscular fatigue for sustained carrying tasks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Management, Chung Hua University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kai Way
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Ph.D Program of Technology Management, Chung Hua University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chien Wen
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ruifeng
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D001132:Arm; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D017770:Lifting; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018763:Muscle Fatigue; D053580:Muscle Strength; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Muscular fatigue; fatigue parameter; musculoskeletal injury; predictive model