Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the Elderly
The decreased muscle mass and increased prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases in the elderly means that this population often experiences difficulty with writing. Although various commercial writing assistive devices exist to reduce pain and improve writing efficiency, low satisfaction with their d...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/993 |
| _version_ | 1797489397796438016 |
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| author | Sol Kim Ji-Yong Jung Chang-Min Yang Yeon-Kyun Lee Jung-Ja Kim |
| author_facet | Sol Kim Ji-Yong Jung Chang-Min Yang Yeon-Kyun Lee Jung-Ja Kim |
| author_sort | Sol Kim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The decreased muscle mass and increased prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases in the elderly means that this population often experiences difficulty with writing. Although various commercial writing assistive devices exist to reduce pain and improve writing efficiency, low satisfaction with their design prevents them from being widely adopted. In this study, we developed a new ergonomic writing assistive device that overcomes these shortcomings and reduces finger pain. Twenty elderly people with normal writing skills participated in a performance evaluation of our designed device. We used two commercial writing assistive devices and the developed writing assistive device to write a given experimental sentence three times each for each device. For each device, finger-related muscles activity and finger pressure were measured during the experiment, and satisfaction level was evaluated using the modified QUEST 2.0 after the experiment. As a result, the activity in abductor pollicis brevis (18.16%) and first dorsal interosseous muscle (14.17%) was significantly higher when using the NDWAD (newly developed writing assistive device) than when using commercialized WADs (writing assistive devices) (<i>p</i> < 0.05). Finger pressure in the thumb (0.59 N), index finger (1.09 N), and middle finger (0.46 N) was significantly lower when using NDWAD than when using WADs (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The satisfaction level of NDWAD (4.47) was higher than that of WADs. Therefore, we confirmed that our design reduced finger pressure and improved user satisfaction. Consequently, the NDWAD developed in this study can be used as a writing aid not only for the elderly, but also for patients with writing disabilities. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:16:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-63403189b7924b17b0a837cd809055a1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:16:58Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-63403189b7924b17b0a837cd809055a12023-11-23T15:50:04ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-01-0112399310.3390/app12030993Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the ElderlySol Kim0Ji-Yong Jung1Chang-Min Yang2Yeon-Kyun Lee3Jung-Ja Kim4Department of Healthcare Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si 54896, KoreaDivision of Biomedical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si 54896, KoreaDepartment of Healthcare Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si 54896, KoreaDepartment of Healthcare Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si 54896, KoreaDivision of Biomedical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si 54896, KoreaThe decreased muscle mass and increased prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases in the elderly means that this population often experiences difficulty with writing. Although various commercial writing assistive devices exist to reduce pain and improve writing efficiency, low satisfaction with their design prevents them from being widely adopted. In this study, we developed a new ergonomic writing assistive device that overcomes these shortcomings and reduces finger pain. Twenty elderly people with normal writing skills participated in a performance evaluation of our designed device. We used two commercial writing assistive devices and the developed writing assistive device to write a given experimental sentence three times each for each device. For each device, finger-related muscles activity and finger pressure were measured during the experiment, and satisfaction level was evaluated using the modified QUEST 2.0 after the experiment. As a result, the activity in abductor pollicis brevis (18.16%) and first dorsal interosseous muscle (14.17%) was significantly higher when using the NDWAD (newly developed writing assistive device) than when using commercialized WADs (writing assistive devices) (<i>p</i> < 0.05). Finger pressure in the thumb (0.59 N), index finger (1.09 N), and middle finger (0.46 N) was significantly lower when using NDWAD than when using WADs (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The satisfaction level of NDWAD (4.47) was higher than that of WADs. Therefore, we confirmed that our design reduced finger pressure and improved user satisfaction. Consequently, the NDWAD developed in this study can be used as a writing aid not only for the elderly, but also for patients with writing disabilities.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/993writing assistive deviceelectromyographyfinger pressuresatisfactionmuscle activity |
| spellingShingle | Sol Kim Ji-Yong Jung Chang-Min Yang Yeon-Kyun Lee Jung-Ja Kim Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the Elderly Applied Sciences writing assistive device electromyography finger pressure satisfaction muscle activity |
| title | Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the Elderly |
| title_full | Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the Elderly |
| title_fullStr | Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the Elderly |
| title_full_unstemmed | Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the Elderly |
| title_short | Development of an Ergonomic Writing Assistive Device for Finger Pain Reduction in the Elderly |
| title_sort | development of an ergonomic writing assistive device for finger pain reduction in the elderly |
| topic | writing assistive device electromyography finger pressure satisfaction muscle activity |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/993 |
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