Portable smart device that can warn of dangerous forward tilting and twisting posture for the purpose of reducing the burden on the low back during nursing support

Abstract

Lower back-pain is a common symptom affecting many people without regards to gender, and it is particularly the case among nurses. In this research, we developed a smart device that nurses can wear inside their chest pocket during daily work. This device measures the forward tilting and twisting angles and can alert in real time when dangerous postures are adopted with the purpose of reducing the lower back burden during nursing and care operations. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed device, we compared the movement postures of 4 nurses and 4 nursing students with and without sound alarms during bed-to-wheelchair transfers. From the measurements, it results that the sound alarms help to decrease dangerous forward tilting and twisting motions(p<0.05).