Protective Gloves, Hand Grip Strength, and Dexterity Tests: A Comprehensive Study

Overview

Journal Heliyon

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 2023 Feb 27

PMID 36846696

Authors

Payam Khanlari

Fakhradin Ghasemi

Rashid Heidarimoghdam

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Protective gloves can affect hand performance indicators (HPIs) like manual dexterity and hand grip. The present study was conducted to comprehensively and comparatively investigate several types of protective gloves and HPI assessment tools. Seventeen healthy men participated in this study. Four types of protective gloves, two structural firefighting and two general protective gloves, were investigated using four different dexterity tests and the bulb dynamometer. Structural firefighting gloves were significantly different in terms of dexterity, while there was no significant difference between general protective gloves. In contrast, firefighting gloves were not significantly different in terms of hand grip strength, while general protective gloves were significantly different in this regard. Among the four investigated tests, the hand tool dexterity test had the highest discrimination power. The negative effects of structural firefighting gloves on HPIs were higher than those of general protective gloves. A trade-off between safety requirements and hand performance is needed.

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