Changes in wrist postures during a prolonged typing task
- 1 October 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
- Vol. 40 (13) , 629-631
- https://doi.org/10.1177/154193129604001310
Abstract
Twenty experienced typists participated in a laboratory based study to determine whether wrist and forearm postures changed over a 4 hour period of intensive keyboard use. Subjects were randomly assigned to use a conventional keyboard or a fixed split keyboard. Posture data was acquired using electrogoniometers after a 10 warm-up period and at the end of each hour. Wrist and forearm postures did not change significantly over the four hour period among subjects using the split geometry keyboard. On the conventional keyboard, all joint postures were stable except right wrist extension and left forearm pronation. The right wrist extension increased by 5° over the four hour period (p=.002) and left pronation decreased by approximately 9° (p=.001). Wrist postures among typists exposed for the first time to a split keyboard remained constant throughout a four hour period of intensive typing. On the conventional keyboard, some postures drifted over the four hour period.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- A system for evaluating the effect of keyboard design on force, posture, comfort, and productivityErgonomics, 1994
- Work Posture, Workstation Design, and Musculoskeletal Discomfort in a VDT Data Entry TaskHuman Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 1991
- Studies on Ergonomically Designed Alphanumeric KeyboardsHuman Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 1985
- Constrained postures in accounting machine operatorsApplied Ergonomics, 1980