The Impact of Protective Gloves on Manual Dexterity in Cold Environments—A Pilot Study

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 19; no. 3; p. 1637
• Main Authors: Orysiak, Joanna, Młynarczyk, Magdalena, Irzmańska, Emilia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 31.01.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Cold; Cold Temperature; Exercise; Fruits; Gloves; Gloves, Protective; Hand; Hands; Heart rate; Humans; Male; Medical research; Microclimate; Motor ability; Motor Skills; Occupational health; Physical fitness; Pilot Projects; Protective clothing; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Task Performance and Analysis; Workers; Working conditions; Poland; Germany; manual dexterity performance; performance time; cold environment; protective gloves; hand performance
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19031637

Our research aimed to determine the impact of two types of protective gloves. The research tested the glove performance on men exposed to a range of temperatures reflecting the working conditions in fruit and vegetable processing. The gloves were assessed for performance within the time required to complete a specific manual task and for performance relative to the subjective thermal sensations in the male subjects. Six males participated in a total of 3 study variants: at +5 °C (with double gloves and single glove), at −1 °C (with double gloves and single glove) and in reference conditions +20 °C (without gloves), in which they performed manual tasks. The measurement of manual task performance time was used to assess manual dexterity. Subjective thermal sensations were determined. Differences in the time required to complete specific tasks were observed between the variants with gloves (both at a temperature of +5 °C and −1 °C), and without gloves (p < 0.05). The type of protective gloves had an impact on the time needed to complete manual tasks and therefore may affect manual dexterity.