The Effect of Kinesio Tape and Exercise on maximum key pinch endurance in Assembly Workers

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal pain is generally caused by poor physical conditions and repetitive movement. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of kinesio tape and exercise on maximum key pinch endurance and pain reduction regarding the assembly workers. Method: This clinical trial study was conducted on 40 female workers employed in the assembly part of an electrical company. The subjects were categorized into three groups: exercisetaping, exercise and control, and performing an 8-week rehabilitation plan twice a week. To assess the upper limb disability and key pinch endurance before and after the intervention, authors used DASH questionnaire and pinch gauge, respectively. Data were evaluated with SPSS 20 and oneway ANOVA, Chi-Square and paired t-test tests. In this study, pinch gauge was used to measure pinch strength. Studies show that pinch gauge has high calibration accuracy and precision.  Results: The results of this study demonstrated a decrease in upper limb disability in the two groups of exercise and tapingexercise compared to the control group. Chisquare test indicated a statistically significant difference between the history of hand pain in the three groups. Moreover, paired t-test showed that the two hand’s key pinch endurance was significantly increased in the two intervention groups compared to the control group. Conclusion: Using a kinesio tape can be effective in reducing pain and physical damage in hands. Therefore, at least 2 or 3 exercise sessions can be done per week during working hours.