Search

Studies of lifestyle through comprehensive objective and subjective measurements of health outcomes are lacking. An examination of lifestyle factors in middle-aged and older adults in terms of age, gender, and the interaction effect of age and gender from physiological and psychological perspectives are imperative. Recent advances in technology such as actigraphy have facilitated objective measurements. This exploratory study contributes to research on age and gender interactions on circadian rhythm, physical activity, sleep, and psychological variables by employing wrist accelerometers to measure behavioral circadian rhythm objectively and by using questionnaires to assess psychological status subjectively. The data were drawn from 218 participants aged 50 and older from the "Middle-aged and older adults Chinese Health and Actigraphy in Taiwan (MOCHA-T)". The results: (1) older adult group is associated with declined physical activity (MVPA time 79.9 min VS. 107.9 min, p =.002), worse sleep efficiency (78.1% VS. 81.9%, p =.008), and earlier lifestyle (Acrophase 14.19 h VS. 14.69 h, p =.01) comparing to middle-aged group. (2) Women have a more regular lifestyle (Interdaily stability 0.6 VS. 051, p < 0.001), higher physical activity (MVPA time 105.7 min VS. 79.3 min, p =.004), and better sleep efficiency (81.6% VS. 77.8%, p =.011) than men. (3) Significant age-by-gender interactions existed in life satisfaction (p =.025), relative amplitude (p =.016), and total wake time (p =.038). Furthermore, aging was associated with significant increases in life satisfaction among men as well as significant decreases in relative amplitude and reductions in the total wake time among women. In conclusion, aging exerted differential effects on life satisfaction in men as well as relative amplitude and the total wake time in women. This result highlights disparities in lifestyle arising from interconnected social and biological challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bat–ball contacts are critical in the baseball hitting process. However, an effective training method for increasing the impact perception of a bat–ball contact is currently unavailable. Although not widely used, hitting a stationary weighted baseball can be an appropriate method for batters to simulate the perception of hitting a moving baseball. Therefore, swing velocity, wrist vibration, and forearm muscle activation for hitting stationary weighted, stationary regulation, and pitched baseballs were investigated in this study. Twelve position players hit a stationary weighted, stationary regulation, and pitched baseball at a speed of 70.28 ± 3.84 km/h in a random order. The swing velocity, wrist vibration, forearm muscle activation, and co-contraction ratio during hitting phases were analysed. The results indicated that the swing velocity during each specific phase demonstrated no significant differences between the different conditions. Hitting weighted and pitched baseballs caused higher wrist vibration, muscle activation, and co-contraction ratio during the contact phase than hitting regulation balls (p < 0.05). The conclusion was that hitting weighted baseballs could mimic the impact condition of hitting pitched baseballs without changing the pattern of swing velocity, which suggested that this method has potential as a hitting drill for improving hitting perception at bat–ball contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Hammering is a functional task in which the wrist generally follows a path of motion, however, previous studies paid relatively little attention to it. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study is to determine the optimal working height while using a straight-handled hammer to perform the hammering task. METHODS: Ten participants performed the hammering tasks on three different working heights (64, 80, and 96 cm) using three subjective hammering forces (light, medium, and heavy). RESULTS: The results revealed that there were linear increasing trends of shoulder abduction, which increased with the increased working height when hammering and the trunk flexion revealed a contrary result. However, the ulnar deviation and trunk lateral bending were insensitive to the working heights. The hammering forces merely resulted in trunk flexion and lateral bending and no posture differences at upper extremities. CONCLUSION: The trade-off between acceptable trunk flexion and shoulder abduction was considered to determine a reasonable effective working height (by measuring downward from worker's elbow height) in the range from 25 cm to 35 cm with a mean 30 cm. This range will be valuable for hammering job design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared the kinetic roles of the upper extremities in racket impact force generation between the open stance (OS) and square stance (SS) for tennis players with different skill levels in two-handed backhand strokes. Twelve male tennis players were divided into an advanced group (AG) (L3-L2 skill level) and intermediate group (IG) (L7-L6 skill level), and their data were used in a three-dimensional kinetic analysis. Their motions were captured using 21 reflective markers attached to anatomic landmarks for two-handed backhand stroke motion data collection. During the acceleration phase, significant differences were not observed between both stances, but they were observed between the groups with different skill levels for the force of the upper extremities (p = 0.027). The joint forces were significantly lower in the AG than in the IG. Players performing the SS had significantly larger pronation and supination of the wrist joint moment than those in the OS (p = 0.032) during the acceleration phase, irrespective of the playing level. Higher internal rotation moment after impact was observed at each joint, particularly among young intermediate tennis players, regardless of their stance. The AG demonstrated a higher joint force and moment at every joint compared with the IG at impact. Moreover, the AG demonstrated superior stroke efficiency and effectively reduced joint moment after impact and sports injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to survey occupational therapists for the usage problems and for their improvement needs for upper extremity rehabilitation equipment (UERE). A questionnaire was given to experienced occupational therapists from 113 hospitals that provide occupational therapy services with three or more professional full-time therapists. A total of 48 hospitals sent back questionnaires, and 184 valid questionnaires were received. Most of the UERE had two major problems: The base of the equipment was unstable, and the equipment was uninteresting to use. The therapists reported that three major needs for design improvement in the UERE were adjustability of functions, exchangeability of components and recording of movement data. Some therapists had suggestions for designing new types of UERE, such as manual dexterity training equipment, activities of daily living oriented equipment, sensory re-education equipment, arm supination and pronation training equipment, and wrist extension training equipment. These findings reveal the genuine user needs of upper extremity devices and provide useful applications to the development and re-design of these devices. However, obtaining opinions primarily from experienced occupational therapists may pose a methodological limitation of this study. In future research, it is advised to include patients' opinions and also investigate whether a clinician's years of experience would affect his or her viewpoint of usage problems and improvement needs of the UERE. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]