New Biomechanical Knowledge Base and Digital Design Tool for Prevention of Occupational Neck Disorders

 描述（由申请人提供）：颈部疼痛已成为残疾的一个非常重要的来源和全球健康问题，影响全球超过3.32亿人（患病率为4.9%）。来自调查或队列研究的数据表明，颈部疼痛与工作和工作暴露类型有关：每年有11-14%的工人因颈部疼痛而受到干扰或限制活动，办公室工作人员是发病率最高的人群之一。由于现代工作的久坐趋势持续存在，如果没有更好的病因学了解，有效的预防和控制，颈痛将继续损害劳动人口的工作和生活质量，并对社会造成巨大的社会经济负担。虽然颈部疼痛的发病机制尚不清楚，并认为是多因素的性质，过去的生物力学研究已经证实了机械因素，包括颈部姿势，颈部肌肉力量，颈椎椎间盘负荷的核心作用。然而，迄今为止的生物力学研究未能实现的是，详细，准确地说明颈部肌肉和骨骼组件在体内头颈活动期间如何准确响应，以及这些响应如何在不同个体之间变化。该提案将利用最先进的体内生物力学测量和计算机（基于计算机）肌肉骨骼建模技术，启动新的科学知识库的开发，沿着一套实用的指南和工具，以更好地评估、识别和降低职业性颈部疼痛和疾病的风险。具体来说，我们准备追求三个目标：目标1将测量动态屈伸运动和持续静态用力过程中的活体头颈骨骼运动学和颈部肌肉活动;目标2将开发和验证可以预测颈部肌肉力和颈椎椎间盘负荷的受试者特定头颈肌肉骨骼生物力学模型;目标3将实施模型驱动的计算机模拟，以评估工作和工人特征如何影响颈部肌肉力量和颈椎椎间盘负荷，并建立实用的颈部疼痛预防/干预指南。这些目标的成功实现将导致一个新的生物力学知识库和一个数字模拟平台，使成本效益高，时间效率高的设计“颈部密集型工作，评估预防或保护手段，以控制更有针对性的机械危险因素，并减少职业颈部疾病和伤害的患病率。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neck pain has become a highly significant source of disability and a global health concern, affecting more than 332 million people worldwide (4.9% prevalence). Data from surveys or cohort studies suggest neck pain is associated with work and type of work exposure: each year, 11-14% of workers are interfered or limited in their activity due to neck pain, and office workers are among those with the highest incidence. As the sedentary trend of modern work persists, without better etiological understanding, effective prevention and control, neck pain will continue to impair the quality of work and life of the working population and pose a tremendous socio- economic burden on society. While the pathogenesis of neck pain is still unclear and believed to be multifactorial in nature, past biomechanical studies have confirmed a central role by the mechanical factors, including neck posture, neck muscle forces, and cervical spine disc loads. What biomechanical studies to date have failed to achieve, however, was a detailed, accurate account of how the neck muscular and skeletal components exactly respond during head-neck activities in vivo and how such responses vary across different individuals. This proposal will take advantage of the state-of-the-art technologies for in vivo biomechanical measurements and in silico (computer-based) musculoskeletal modeling to initiate the development of a new scientific knowledge base along with a set of practical guidelines and tools for better evaluation, recognition, and reduction of te risk of occupational neck pain and disorders. Specifically, we are poised to pursue three aims: Aim 1 will measure in vivo head-neck skeletal kinematics and neck muscle activities during dynamic flexion- extension movements and sustained static exertions; Aim 2 will develop and validate subject-specific head- neck musculoskeletal biomechanical models that can predict neck muscle forces and cervical spine disc loads; Aim 3 will implement model-driven computer simulations to evaluate how work and worker characteristics affect neck muscle forces and cervical spine disc loads and establish practical neck pain prevention/intervention guidelines. Successful accomplishment of these aims will lead to a new biomechanical knowledge base and a digital simulation platform enabling cost-effective, time-efficient design of "neck-intensive work, evaluation of preventive or protective means for controlling more targeted mechanical risk factors and reducing the prevalence of occupational neck disorders and injuries.