Thermographic differences due to dynamic work tasks on individuals with different obesity levels: a preliminary study

Abstract

The current study aims at testing whether skin temperatures (Tskin) changes are sensitive to work conditions during lifting tasks. The second goal of this work is to analyse possible differences in Tskin changes across individuals with different obesity levels. By applying IRT imaging this study considered 29 participants with different obesity levels, for a repetitive lifting task between floor and shoulders height with a periodicity of 7 seconds up to 2 minutes. Thermal images were registered across 16 Regions Of Interest (ROI) (divided into body anterior and posterior views). Data analysis was performed from the temperatures differential, calculated as the algebraic difference between Tskin measured before and after the task. This Tskin difference presented statistical evidence (p < 0.05 for all ROI), with a decrease after the task. The average Tskin decrease of the 8 ROI for anterior view was 0.33(+/- 0.08)oC and for posterior view was 0.51(+/- 0.08)oC, being an indicator of muscular overload increased. Results show a relation between the obese participants and the presence of higher cooling in the ROI studied. These outcomes corroborate that obesity is a WRMSD risk factor and also provides evidence that IRT can be a useful tool to assess the participants' biomechanics performance.