Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA.
Department of Industrial Health, Catholic University of Pusan, Busan 46241, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Nov 10;17(22):8314. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17228314.
The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of gender and postures of the neck, trunk, and knee on overall postural discomfort, and to classify combined postures into different postural discomfort groups. A total of 95 participants (42 males and 53 females) performed 45 different static postures, which were a combination of 3 neck angles, 5 trunk angles, and 3 knee angles, and rated the perceived postural discomfort. Non-hierarchical K-means cluster analysis was employed to classify the 45 different combined postures into several postural discomfort groups. Postural discomfort was significantly affected by gender and postures of the neck, trunk, and knee ( < 0.001). Three clusters (high, medium, and low discomfort) were identified and the postural discomfort was significantly different between clusters ( < 0.001). The high discomfort group consisted of mostly males with high knee and trunk flexion angles and a moderate neck flexion angle. The low discomfort group was female-dominant with low neck and trunk flexion angles and a moderate knee flexion angle. The different flexibility (stiffness) of the joint motions between genders may affect the gender difference in postural discomfort. The knee and trunk postures were critical to the postural balance, which may affect the perception of whole-body discomfort. This result will be useful for developing and improving postural observation tools.
本研究旨在评估性别和颈部、躯干及膝关节姿势对整体姿势不适的影响，并将组合姿势分类到不同的姿势不适组中。共有 95 名参与者（42 名男性和 53 名女性）完成了 45 种不同的静态姿势，这些姿势是 3 种颈部角度、5 种躯干角度和 3 种膝关节角度的组合，并对感知到的姿势不适进行了评分。采用非层次 K-均值聚类分析将 45 种不同的组合姿势分为几个姿势不适组。姿势不适显著受到性别和颈部、躯干及膝关节姿势的影响（<0.001）。确定了三个聚类（高、中、低不适），并且聚类之间的姿势不适有显著差异（<0.001）。高不适组主要由男性组成，他们的膝关节和躯干弯曲角度较高，颈部弯曲角度适中。低不适组以女性为主，她们的颈部和躯干弯曲角度较低，膝关节弯曲角度适中。关节运动的不同灵活性（僵硬度）可能会影响姿势不适的性别差异。膝关节和躯干姿势对姿势平衡至关重要，这可能会影响对全身不适的感知。该结果将有助于开发和改进姿势观察工具。
