Common law enforcement load carriage systems have limited acute effects on postural stability and muscle activity.

Autor: Sax van der Weyden MN; Sports Medicine Assessment Research & Testing (SMART) Laboratory, VA, USA; School of Kinesiology, George Mason University, VA, USA. Electronic address: msaxvand@gmu.edu., Kearney JW; Sports Medicine Assessment Research & Testing (SMART) Laboratory, VA, USA; School of Kinesiology, George Mason University, VA, USA. Electronic address: jkearne@gmu.edu., Cortes N; School of Sport, Rehabilitation, and Exercise Sciences, University of Essex, Essex, England, UK; Department of Bioengineering. George Mason University, VA, USA. Electronic address: n.cortes@essex.ac.uk., Fernandes O; School of Science and Technology, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal. Electronic address: orlandoj@uevora.pt., Martin JR; Sports Medicine Assessment Research & Testing (SMART) Laboratory, VA, USA; School of Kinesiology, George Mason University, VA, USA. Electronic address: jmarti38@gmu.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Applied ergonomics [Appl Ergon] 2023 Nov; Vol. 113, pp. 104091. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jul 10.
DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2023.104091
Abstrakt: Law enforcement officers are inherently at a high risk of injury and the loads they must carry during their occupational duties further increase their injury risk. It is unknown how different methods of carrying a law enforcement officer's load influence factors related to injury risk. This study assessed the effects of common law enforcement load carriage systems on muscular activity and postural stability while standing. Twenty-four participants performed single and dual-task (i.e. concurrent performance of cognitive tasks) standing while wearing a duty belt, tactical vest, and no load. The postural stability and muscle activity were measured and effects of condition and task examined. Dual task standing decreased postural stability and increased muscular activity. The belt and vest (7.2 kg each) increased muscle activity compared to control for the right abdominals, low back, right thigh. The duty belt resulted in less muscle activity in the right abdominals but more muscle activity in the left multifidus compared to the control. The findings indicate that common law enforcement load carriage systems increase muscular activity but do not affect postural stability. However, the lack of differences between the duty belt and tactical vest did not provide clear support for one load carriage system versus the other.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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