Effects of a passive shoulder exoskeleton on muscle activity among Danish slaughterhouse workers.

To evaluate the effect of a shoulder exoskeleton on muscle activity and to compare the effect with a lifting glove among slaughterhouse workers in occupational settings. We conducted a crossover study of 26 workers measured during two work days with and without the use of a passive shoulder exoskeleton and a lifting glove at a Danish slaughterhouse. Electromyography sensors were placed bilateral on 5 shoulder muscles. The 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles of muscle activity normalized by maximal voluntary contractions were measured and analyzed using mixed effect models. For the 50th percentiles of the agonist muscles, the exoskeleton reduced muscle activity bilaterally for deltoid anterior with up to 29.47%, deltoid middle with 10.22%, and upper trapezius with 22.21%. The lifting glove only reduced muscle activity for right deltoid anterior (36.59%) and upper trapezius (7.11%), but generally increased left muscle activity with up to 15.58%. The exoskeleton showed larger reductions in muscle activity compared to the lifting glove.

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Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interest.