As one of the most representative assistive technology devices, the wheelchair has many peculiar aspects in its daily usage. Therefore, the wheelchair cannot be thought of only as a mobility device, and ergonomic investigation should include also aesthetics and symbolic aspects. This study was aimed at investigating the influence of gender on the users’ perceptions about the significance of their own wheelchair. The sample comprised ten manual wheelchair users, being five men and five women. Subjects were asked to rate in a seven-point scale their perceptions about each pair of opposite adjectives, taking into account their experience with their own wheelchairs. The mean and standard deviation values were obtained for each pair of adjectives and then compared between the two groups of subjects by using parametric and non-parametric tests, according to the normality of the data. The results show that, in general, men's perceptions about their wheelchairs were more positive than women's in both practical and symbolic functions. Significant difference between gender was found with the pairs of adjectives including/excluding (p=0.003) and efficient/inefficient (p=0.038). Such differences may reveal underlying problems that female users experience in daily wheelchair usage and, ultimately, reflect the social consequences of this. Knowledge about the significance of assistive devices is important to provide a view not only on practical, but also aesthetic and symbolic aspects of the product, thus benefiting designers in developing products that best meet the users’ needs and expectations

In recent decades, the market of consumer products has changed from the production-oriented point of view to a more market-focused, i.e. aiming to attend consumers’ expectations. Today, consumers turn their attention not only to the logical and rational aspects of the product, but increasingly symbolic and emotional factors have gained an important role in buying decision. Some methods have already been used to design emotional meaning in the products, such as the Kansei Engineering with reported results in literature. This study had as a goal to investigate affective aspects of disposable razors perceived by the users and how they relate to product features using Kansei Engineering. Thus, 40 disposable razors commonly found in the international market were evaluated in a virtual system through a variety of pictures (photographic representation) of the products. In order to identify the most relevant product features Morphological Analysis was performed. To evaluate the disposable razors, 321 male adults volunteered in this study. Semantic differential with 17 pairs of bipolar adjectives were employed to construct the semantic space in Kansei Engineering. The results showed no high correlation in the sample. Moderate correlations, however were found in 12 pairs of bipolar adjectives with 13 product features. Thus, it can be assumed that affective responses can be mildly related to product feature, considering limitation of statistic treatment.

This descriptive study of cross sectional has focused on analyzing the school material weight transported by students associated with children and adolescents overweight in primary and secondary schools. Participants 339 students of both genders, aged 10-19 years. 243 students carrying and average load of 12.65% of his body weight. 53 students were overweight with a BMI of 20,00 to 35,6. 20 overweight students carrying backpacks more than 10% of his body weight. 21% of the students rated complained of back and shoulder pain. This data is very important in the preventive aspects for the individuals studied, as well as others with the same anthropometric characteristics and the same demand.

The relevant issues about clothing have been increasing in recent times. The increase number of consumers and users that search for differentiated and appropriate products to their needs and expectations is impacting on the design stages as well as on manufacturing process. Thus the understanding of specified segments of consumers and users emerges as a competitive strategy that is favourable to the development of products that are adequate and satisfactory to different individuals. Regarding the fashion context, the clothing product provides to the emotional level channels of signification and subjective identification. Considering the direct contact between clothing and user, the information about anthropometric biomechanical and ergonomic are of extreme relevance for the development of modelling that are appropriated to different needs of different segments of users

Studies demonstrate that there is a lack of effective ergonomic principles for adopting a neutral posture during the execution of dental procedures. ISO 11.226:2000 Standard, Corr. 1:2006 has been thoroughly evaluated and adapted to the way that dentists work by the European Society of Dental Ergonomics (ESDE). However, after 15 years, no studies that showed strong evidence of effectiveness in reducing the prevalence of awkward posture in applying its parameters within the scope of dental practice were found. The aim of this study was to verify the effectiveness of applying the ergonomic parameters proposed by the European Society of Dental Ergonomics (ESDE) and ISO 11226 in reducing the prevalence of the main awkward postures adopted by female dental surgeons during the execution of dental scaling on a dental mannequin. A randomized clinical trial was carried out with sixty dental surgeons randomly assigned to two groups: the intervention group, who received instructions and theoretical and practical ergonomic training; and the control group, who received the same training only at the end of the study. For data analysis, Software IBM SPSS 27 and RStudio was used. Descriptive statistics were performed to verify the effectiveness of the intervention, and generalized linear models (specifically, generalized estimated equation models) were used. Poisson distribution was carried out with log link function and network analyses. Sixty female dental surgeons participated in the study. Twenty-two were distributed in the intervention group and thirty-eight in the control group. It was found that ergonomic training enabled a 63% reduction in the prevalence of awkward postures and that there was a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) only in the intervention group. The analyses showed that the estimated marginal means of postures not recommended in the groups’ initial control, final control, initial intervention, and final intervention were 8.6, 8.2, 9.0, and 3.4, respectively. The relationship of networks analyses of the variables is shown with different profiles in the control and intervention groups, but the same pattern between the groups only vary in the strength and direction of the correlations. It was concluded that the ergonomic training based on the parameters of ISO 11226 and DIN EN 1005-4, and its adaptations to the dental practice provided by the European Society of Dental Ergonomics, as well as recent studies, contributed significantly to reducing the prevalence of awkward postures adopted by female dentists during the simulation of the basic periodontal procedures; however, it was not effective enough to improve the posture of the head and neck.