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. 2022 Sep 8:13:968818.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.968818. eCollection 2022.

Indexes for motor performance assessment in job integration/reintegration of people with neuromuscular disorders: A systematic review

Giorgia Chini  1 , Lorenzo Fiori  1   2 , Antonella Tatarelli  1   3 , Tiwana Varrecchia  1 , Francesco Draicchio  1 , Alberto Ranavolo  1
Affiliations

Indexes for motor performance assessment in job integration/reintegration of people with neuromuscular disorders: A systematic review

Giorgia Chini et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Individuals of working age affected by neuromuscular disorders frequently experience issues with their capacity to get employment, difficulty at work, and premature work interruption. Anyway, individuals with a disability could be able to return to work, thanks to targeted rehabilitation as well as ergonomic and training interventions. Biomechanical and physiological indexes are important for evaluating motor and muscle performance and determining the success of job integration initiatives. Therefore, it is necessary to determinate which indexes from the literature are the most appropriate to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the return-to-work programs. To identify current and future valuable indexes, this study uses a systematic literature review methodology for selecting articles published from 2011 to March 30, 2021 from Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed and for checking the eligibility and the potential bias risks. The most used indexes for motor performance assessment were identified, categorized, and analyzed. This review revealed a great potential for kinetic, kinematic, surface electromyography, postural, and other biomechanical and physiological indexes to be used for job integration/reintegration. Indeed, wearable miniaturized sensors, kinematic, kinetic, and sEMG-based indexes can be used to control collaborative robots, classify residual motor functions, and assess pre-post-rehabilitation and ergonomic therapies.

Keywords: biomechanics; ergonomics; indexes; job reintegration; monitoring; neurological disorders; performance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flowchart related to the steps of a systematic review provided by the journal Frontiers in Neurology.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk of bias summary: authors' judgments for 15 included studies and for each considered domain.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Risk of bias graph: authors' judgments for each risk of bias reported as percentages of the different studies included in the review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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