Assessment of Scapular Dyskinesia and Grip St...

Assessment of Scapular Dyskinesia and Grip Strength in Butchers

Author Name : Saatvik Jathan, Dr. Priyanka Gokhale, Dr. Ajay Kumar

ABSTRACT

Background:  A butcher is a person who slaughters animals and/or converts large pieces of meat received from the slaughterhouse into smaller pieces and directly sells them to the end consumers. Butchers are an active part of the 'small and medium-sized enterprises' (SME) and while working in a SME they depend on manual handling processes instead of mechanised chopping and/or segregation of meat pieces.This occupation requires use of both the hands. But mainly the dominant holds the knife or a cleaver (a large knife that varies in its shape but usually demonstrates a rectangular blade hatchet). The cleaver used by the butcher usually has a blade of 8 inches and can weigh up to 1kg. The non-dominant hand assists in holding the larger meat piece while chopping. The following study was undertaken due to dearth of research conducted on this population and their vulnerability towards shoulder and grip related injuries

Objective: To assess the scapular dyskinesia and grip strength in butchers.

Method: Total 70 subjects participated in the study. Scapular dyskinesia was assessed using lateral scapular slide test and classified using Kibler's classification. Grip strength was recorded using Jamar Hand-held Dynamometer.

Results: Butchers were divided into 2 groups Meat butchers and Poultry butchers. There was a positive correlation between hand grip strength and scapular dyskinesia among meat butchers. And there was negative correlation between hand grip strength and scapular dyskinesia among poultry butchers.

Conclusion: This scapular dyskinesia was assessed using Lateral scapular slide test and grip strength was measured using Jamar hand held dynamometer and it can be concluded that, there is  a positive correlation between hand grip strength and scapular dyskinesia on the dominant side in specifically meat butchers. The poultry butchers data suggests a negative correlation between these two variables of dominant side. Although years of experience in chopping meat, current age of the butchers do play a vital role behind establishing such correlation but in our study we attribute the findings primarily to the type of meat the butchers cut along with the faulty posture of scapula and weakness of scapular stabilizers.

Keywords: Scapular Dyskinesia, Hand grip strength, Jamar Dynamometer.