Lower back pain is ranked globally as the greatest contributor to years of disability and the non-fatal health burden in Australia and globally. The most common reasons for a work-related injury of the trunk in Australia were handling, lifting, carrying, and putting down objects, accounting for 48% of all serious compensation claims in 2015-16. Research on low back movements during daily activities has typically been conducted using expensive motion capture systems in a laboratory environment. Conducting such measurements in the laboratory may not capture the variability in spinal motions that occur in the workplace. This project will aim to develop a low-cost, accurate wearable system to measure and distinguish the patterns of low back movements in the workplace environment. This data will be used in future research to better understand the mechanisms of lifting-related injuries.
