Yuichiro Ono

An experimental study was performed to investigate a care-giver's lifting ability under various lifting conditions intransferring a patient from sitting to standing positions. Nine female volunteers of college students repeated lifting of a weight until they failed to lift a heavier weight. The load was set up to increase step by step for each trial, and lifting force and height were recorded during each trial with the use of Lido Lift(Lordan Biomedical Inc.). Three levels of height were chosen to cover different lifting positions of diverse body lengths of patients. Comparing loads which corresponded to the same lifting velocity under various lifting conditions, we assessed the effect of waist-belt and posture, i. e. stoop and squat, on the lifting ability of a care-giver. The results showed the advantage of the combination of the waist-belt and the squatting posture both at the level of load close to the lifting limit and at the level of reduced load. It was suggested that lifting ability of the subjects under various lifting condition scould be assessed at the reduced load level.