Scientific Data

The Atlas Ergonomic Book & Copy Holder was part of the United States portion of an international ergonomic study, the "MEPS" study. As part of this study, data entry workers who worked at standardized, uniform desks were studied in terms of their posture, as well as being tested for painful local regions (trigger points) in the back and upper shoulders. This is the "pre-test" -- before any ergonomic changes were made.

After initial assessment, these volunteers were trained in ergonomics. Subsequently, they were given highly adjustable workstations, footrests, ergonomic chairs, height-appropriate monitors, adjustable keyboards, corrective eyeglasses if needed, and Atlas Ergonomic Book & Copy Holders.

At the end of 30 days, and again after one year, these measurements were repeated; postures were assessed and trigger points evaluated. The results indicated that, after the intervention, the participants' head posture was more erect, and they suffered from many fewer trigger points.

The average neck angles decreased from 20 degrees at pretest to 13 degrees after 30 days, and 12 degrees after one year. The total number of trigger points among the participants decreased from 128 at pretest to 34 after 30 days, and 17 one year after the ergonomic changes. For both of these measures, these decreases were statistically significant.

It should be stressed that the copy holder was only part of the overall changes that were made to these volunteers' workstations. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to conclude that use of the document holder played an important role in the changes cited above.

Reference:
Dainoff, M. J. and Aaras, A. (1995) The "MEPS' Project: Musculoskeletal, postural, visual and psychosocial outcomes resulting from ergonomic and optometric intervention. HCI International '95: the Sixth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Yokohama, Japan.