Single-plane neck movements and respiratory frequency monitoring: a smart system for computer workers

Prolonged seated works are responsible of awkward poses (e.g., excessive neck forward flexion) and job stressful conditions. Musculoskeletal disorders in the cervical spine region are common in computer workers who are often affected by neck pain. Neck pain has a high prevalence amongst the general population (from 42% to 69%). Reduction of workers productivity, absence from work and utilization of health care services worsen the socioeconomic burden associated to neck pain. Early evaluation of postural mistakes and changes in vital signs associated to job stress may be beneficial to reduce the incidence of neck pain. To reach this aim, wearable systems based on different sensing technologies have been developed. In the last decades, smart systems based on fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBGs) have been extensively used for instrumenting wearables. The present work aimed at preliminary assessing the capability of an FBG-based smart system in detecting single-plane neck movements associated to poor postural habits and respiratory frequency changes associated to stressful working conditions. Results confirmed the system capability in detecting flexion/extension movements in the sagittal plane and its good accuracy in monitoring respiratory frequency during computer work.