Effects of different bed heights on the physical burden of physiotherapists during manual therapy: an experimental study

Abstract

This study aimed todetermine the effect of physiotherapists’ physical burden caused by different bedheights during manual therapy. Thirty-three male physiotherapists performedtasks simulating lumbar massage and passive hip abduction range-of-motionexercise (ROM) on the beds with low height (LH) and adjusted height (AH), witheach task performed three times. The anterior inclination angle of thephysiotherapist’s trunk was measured, the surface electromyograms of theerector spinae and trapezius muscles were recorded, and perceived stress wasassessed. The indexes obtained were statistically compared for different bedheights. Additionally, the lumbar disc compression force and flexion torquewere estimated. The lumbar burden caused by the excessive bending and thebiomechanical burden and perceived stress were stronger at LH than AH. In ROM tasks using the right hand, the muscleactivity was lower at the left lumbar region at LH than at AH. At LH, the anteriorinclination angle increased and the lumbar muscle activity declined as the numberof tasks increased. The burden on the shoulders was not significantly differentby bed heights. Our results showed that, when physiotherapists perform manualtherapy, it is necessary to adjust the bed height to reduce physicalburden and ensure higher quality of service.