Effect of protective gloves on hand movement: an exploratory study

This exploratory study was conducted to determine whether wearing protective gloves limits the range of motion that the hand can complete. The kinematic motion of the hand/wrist/forearm of two participants was analysed during the performance of two tasks typical of pesticide applicators. High-speed cinematography was used to collect data which were then digitized and combined to produce three-dimensional data. Graphs of the transformed data showed that in comparison with the barehanded state, the protective glove decreased the abduction/adduction and supination/pronation ranges that the hand could complete. Extension/flexion did not appear to be affected. Overall, kinematic motion of the hand appeared to decrease while wearing protective gloves.