The Stoop-Squat-Index: a simple but powerful measure for quantifying whole-body lifting behavior.
Stefan Schmid
PMID 35449120WHAT IT FOUND
A proposed index can separate squat from stoop lifting in healthy adults.
It does not show either technique prevents back injury.
Key findings
01The Stoop-Squat-Index ranges from 0 for a full squat movement to 100 for a full stoop movement.
02In 30 healthy pain-free adults lifting a 15 kg box, mean squat indices were lower than 30 and mean stoop indices were higher than 90 during the first half of lifting up and the second half of putting down.
03The index separated squat from stoop lifting throughout the whole lift, with differences reported as p < 0.001.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The normative values are from healthy pain-free adults only, so they may not apply to patient populations. The sample was small and recruited from the investigators' personal and workplace environment, so it may not represent the wider population. The index was tested with motion-capture data, and ordinary video accuracy has not been fully validated. The index cannot tell whether forward trunk lean comes from spine flexion or pelvic tilt, so it should be used with spine flexion measurement. The study used only a fixed box weight and a fixed setting, so values may change with different loads or populations. The paper does not test whether squat or stoop lifting prevents back injury.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that squat lifting is safer than stoop lifting. The study measured movement style only, not back pain or injury.