Investigation of the Effect of Different Firefighting Gloves on the Dexterity of Hands and Fingers

Abstract

Background and Objective: One of the most common problems of firefighters is performance degradation while using protective gloves. Regarding the existence of various types of firefighting gloves in Iran, this study aimed to investigate and compare the effect of these gloves on hand dexterity. Materials and Methods: Two types of the most widely used firefighting gloves were selected for the purpose of this study. The dexterity was evaluated using four standard tests, including Bennett, Minnesota, Pegboard, and modified Pegboard, for each pair of gloves on 40 male students. The Spearman's correlation coefficient, Wilcoxon test, and Friedman test were used to compare dexterity and its effective factors. Results: Based on the obtained results, the type of gloves had a significant effect on hand dexterity (P<0.001). The findings showed that the modified Pegboard test had high sensitivity in measuring finger dexterity. However, the Pegboard test due to its low sensitivity and severe reduction in scores was not suitable for measuring dexterity. The Bennett and Minnesota tests due to their similar trends can be used to measure hand dexterity. In addition, since Minnesota test was less tiresome and solved some problems, it can be used instead of the Bennett test. Conclusion: Various firefighting gloves available in the market have different effects on the dexterity of the hands and fingers. Therefore, this should be considered by firefighting organizations. It is recommended to evaluate dexterity while using firefighting gloves with the help of the modified Pegboard and Minnesota tests.

Keywords

• bennett
• hand dexterity
• firefighting gloves
• minnesota
• modified pegboard
• pegboard board