A comparing study between people with reduced hand function and children

This study was conducted in collaboration with Tetra Pak® [1] measuring the hand strength, grip ability, hand size to judge how easy it was to open three packages with a group of 10 people with reduced hand function and 14 children, six years old. The result showed that the hand strength between the group with reduced hand function and the children was quite similar. Also the results from the grip ability test and their judgement of how it was to handle the package was similar. The size of the participants' hands was the only thing that really differed between the groups. This is an interesting input for designers developing products and packages that should be easy to use for children, but may be even more interesting for developing products where there is a need to exclude children or child protective packages. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.Export Date: 20 August 2014</p

Updated reliability and normative values for the standing heel-rise test in healthy adults

Objectives The heel-rise test is used to assess the strength and endurance of the plantar flexors in everyday clinical practice. However, several factors may affect outcomes, including sex, age, body mass index and activity level. The aims of this study were to revisit the reliability and normative values of this test, and establish normative equations accounting for several factors. Design Cross-sectional observational study with test–retest. Setting Community. Participants Volunteers (n = 566, age 20 to 81 years). Interventions Subjects performed single-legged heel rises to fatigue, standing on a 10° incline, once on each leg. A subset of subjects (n = 32) repeated the test 1 week later. Reliability was quantified using intraclass (ICC) correlation coefficients and Bland–Altman plots {mean difference [95% limits of agreement (LOA)]}, whereas the impact of sex, age, body mass index and activity level on the number of heel rises was determined using non-parametric regression models. Results The test showed excellent reliability (ICC = 1.0 right leg, 1.0 left leg), with mean between-day differences in the total number of heel-rise repetitions of 0.2 (95% LOA −6.2 to 6.5) and 0.1 (95% LOA −6.1 to 6.2) for right and left legs, respectively. Overall, males completed more repetitions than females (median 24 vs 21). However, older females (age >60 years) outperformed older males. According to the model, younger males with higher activity levels can complete the most heel rises. Conclusions The heel-rise test is highly reliable. The regression models herein can be employed by clinicians to evaluate the outcomes of heel-rise tests of individuals against a comparable normative population

Injuries and preventive actions in elite swedish volleyball

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of injury and the extent of preventive actions in elite Swedish volleyball players. Injuries to players in the elite male and female Swedish division, during the 2002-2003 season, were registered by using a questionnaire. Of the 158 volleyball players (70% response rate), a total of 82 players (52%) reported 121 injuries, during a total exposure time of 24 632 h, representing an overall incidence of 0.77 injuries per player. The majority of the injuries were located in the ankle (23%), followed by the knee (18%) and the back (15%). Most injuries (62%) were classified as being of minor severity. Most injuries occurred during training (47%), and 41% of the injuries had a gradual onset. Fiftyfour percent of the injuries that could be related to a specific court situation occurred during blocking, and 30% during spiking. Most players (96%) participated in injury prevention training of some kind, generally performed without supervision (58%). Although most players took part in some kind of preventive action, one out of two players incurred an injury during the season, which indicates that the risk of suffering an injury in elite volleyball is relatively high