Hand breakaway strength model—Effects of glove use and handle shapes on a person's hand strength to hold onto handles to prevent fall from elevation

Factors affecting fall severity from a ladder: Impact of climbing direction, gloves, gender and adaptation

“…The perturbations were conducted once in each climbing direction (ascent and descent) for each of three different glove conditions (bare hands, latex-coated gloves and cotton gloves). The latex-coated gloves was selected as a high friction glove condition whereas the cotton gloves were selected as a low friction glove condition (Hur, Motawar et al 2012). Both gloves were bought off-the-shelf.…”

“…Glove use has also been suggested to be an important risk factor for recovery after a climbing perturbation since glove use affects friction and tactile perception. The use of gloves is known to impact the achievable forces between a hand and a handle, which is believed to affect a person's ability to recover from a ladder climbing perturbation (Barnett and Poczynck 2000, Hur, Motawar et al 2012, Hur, Motawar et al 2014. Specifically, the coefficient of friction (COF) between the rung and hand is positively correlated with the amount of frictional force that can be applied to a rung before the rung is pulled out of the hand's grasp (Hur, Motawar et al 2012).…”

“…The use of gloves is known to impact the achievable forces between a hand and a handle, which is believed to affect a person's ability to recover from a ladder climbing perturbation (Barnett and Poczynck 2000, Hur, Motawar et al 2012, Hur, Motawar et al 2014. Specifically, the coefficient of friction (COF) between the rung and hand is positively correlated with the amount of frictional force that can be applied to a rung before the rung is pulled out of the hand's grasp (Hur, Motawar et al 2012). Also, a low COF between the glove and rung has been associated with an increase in the muscular effort required to stabilize a sudden upward impulse force applied to a rung (Hur, Motawar et al 2014).…”

“…Also, a low COF between the glove and rung has been associated with an increase in the muscular effort required to stabilize a sudden upward impulse force applied to a rung (Hur, Motawar et al 2014). However, previous studies that examined the impact of friction on recovery from a ladder perturbation only considered the interaction between the hand and the rung in a stationary position (Barnett and Poczynck 2000, Hur, Motawar et al 2012, Hur, Motawar et al 2014 without consideration of the role that the rest of the body plays after a ladder perturbation. This method may be an oversimplification of the effects that gloves have between the hand and rung during an actual ladder falling scenario.…”

“…Females have less upper body strength than males (Miller, MacDougall et al 1993) even after normalizing for body mass (Young, Woolley et al 2009) and increased upper body strength is believed to be critical to prevent a ladder fall (Hur, Motawar et al 2012). Also, females are shorter in stature, have shorter arms and tend to have smaller hand sizes (Chaffin, Andersson et al 1999), which may impact their ability to reach and grasp ladder rungs.…”