Determination of maximum acceptable and comfortable height during one-handed lifting

One-handed lifting commonly occurs in the industry. Specific guidelines of proper heights during one-handed lifting could be valuable information to design or to assess the risk of work environment.

The objective of this study was to determine the maximum acceptable height and comfortable height during one-handed vertical lifting by gender, participant height, hand, and object weight.

Based on the psychophysical method, 72 males and 50 females, divided into four different height groups, determined their maximum acceptable and comfortable heights by each hand (left and right) and various object weights (1 kg, 3 kg, 5 kg, and 8 kg).

Males revealed significantly greater maximum acceptable heights (males: 157 cm; females: 135 cm) and higher comfortable heights (males: 104 cm; females: 96 cm) compared to females. The participants' heights, which hand was used to lift, and the object weight were significant factors in determining the maximum acceptable height for both males and females. The multiple linear regression model of the maximum acceptable height showed more robust predictive power (R2 = 0.55) compared to the comfortable height (R2 = 0.20) as a function of gender, participant height, hand, and object weight.

Results suggest that gender, participant height, hand, and object weight are important variables to consider when determining the proper surface height of one-handed vertical lifting. Using the robust predictive model, an appropriate maximum acceptable height could be suggested based on the material handler's anthropometric information and object weight.