Title: Principal component analysis of upper-extremity joint moment variability during hammering

Authors: Joseph E. Langenderfer; Sumaya Ferdous; Nilanthy Balendra

Addresses: School of Engineering and Technology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan, 48859, USA ' School of Engineering and Technology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan, 48859, USA ' Department of Physical Therapy, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan, 48859, USA

Abstract: The goal of this study was to examine effects of hammer symmetry of inertia on upper-extremity joint moment variability. Moment variability is important in quantifying tissue exposure to stress variations. Nineteen male participants (age: 20-40 year) swung four hammers with known inertial properties while movement was recorded. Joint moment components were calculated with inverse dynamics. Moment component variability was explained with principal component analysis. Higher inertia symmetry hammers resulted in greater explained variability (up to 18%) for wrist internal-external, elbow abduction-adduction and elbow flexion moment components. For the most inertia symmetric hammer a different structure of moment variability between principal components was found for some moment components. These results suggest that more inertia symmetric hammers result in decreased moment diversity. Decreased moment diversity represents a more constant dose of loading exposure applied to some upper-extremity tissues and may indicate less variable stresses and increased potential for musculoskeletal disorder.

Keywords: kinetics; variability; diversity; strategy; principal component analysis; PCA; inertia; symmetry; moment; hammer; upper-extremity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFE.2020.110091

International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2020 Vol.7 No.3, pp.245 - 259

Received: 27 Feb 2020
Accepted: 08 Jun 2020
Published online: 05 Oct 2020 *

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