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Whether comfort and discomfort are part of the same continuum or separate continua has been disputed for a long time. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that mediate comfort and discomfort. Fifty-eight University ofNebraska -Lincoln students (40 females, 18 males) volunteered to participate in the study. Participants took part in anthropometric measurements, sorting tasks, and attribute ratings in either the Comfort or Discomfort condition. Antbropometric measures revealed males and females were relatively equivalent and therefore were not separated in further analyses. MDS supported the use of a four-dimensional solution to depict the similarities and differences among the sixteen gloves for both comfort and discomfort conditions. Further analyses of the regression weights revealed that for some dimensions participants used different criteria for comfort and discomfort judgments. While dimensional analyses and stimuli positions indicated comfort and discomfort are part of the same continuum, attribute analyses provided conflicting evidence that "same continuum" descriptions of comfort and discomfort are too simplistic. 5-95

Wrist braces have been used in the industry with the notion that they would restrict the range of motion of the wrist to an extent that it would decrease the risk of CTS during forceful repetitive tasks and enhance productivity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the functional wrist brace, wrist angle, and fatigue on maximal grasp strength. Fourteen male and sixteen female college students participated in the study utilizing a soft brace, a hard brace, and no brace in three different static wrist positions (45° flexion, neutral, and 45° extension) prior to and after fatigue to determine the effect on maximal grasp strength measured by a computerized wrist dynamometer. The results of the ANOVA indicated that grasp strength was significantly greater when the wrist was in the flexion position followed by neutral, then wrist extension. However, brace type and fatigue states did not produce statistically significantly different grasp strengths overall. Therefore, the position a grasping task is performed at should be evaluated keeping in mind that the neutral and flexion positions allow for the greatest maximal grasp force with or without a wrist brace. Wrist braces are not recommended as a preventative or protective device during forceful repetitive tasks but the effects of their usage on maximal grasp strength must be evaluated with special consideration of the post-fatigue state.

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