Citation

Du BB, Bigelow PL, Wells RP, Hall P, Davies HW, Johnson PW. Ergonomics 2018; 61(4): 528-537.

Affiliation

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety , University of Washington , Box: 357234, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE Seattle , USA , WA 98195-7234.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00140139.2017.1372638

PMID

28845747

Abstract

Laboratory studies have shown that exposure to whole-body vibration (WBV) increases physical and mental fatigue, which are common issues professional drivers face. The objective of this study was to determine whether altering WBV exposures had any effect on driver vigilance and discomfort. A repeated-measures crossover design of 5 truck drivers with regular 10-hour routes was used. Active and passive suspension truck seats were evaluated. For each seat, WBV exposures were measured. Participants completed a discomfort questionnaire and a reaction-time task before and after their shift for two weeks, one week per seat. Compared with the passive seat, the active seat significantly reduced WBV exposures, decrements in the optimal and mean reaction times (p=0.02, 0.047 respectively), and discomfort in the lower back and wrist(s)/forearm(s) (p<0.01, =0.01 respectively). Study results indicated that reducing WBV helps reduce discomfort and maintain vigilance, which may improve drivers' health and reduce the risk of truck collisions. Practitioner's summary The active suspension seat used in this study reduced truck drivers' exposure to whole-body vibration (WBV) by over 33% in relation to their current industry-standard passive suspension seat. This study demonstrated that reducing truck drivers' exposure to WBV reduced fatigue and discomfort development over a workday.

Language: en

Keywords

attention and vigilance; back pain; transportation safety; whole-body vibration