Investigating the effect of firefighting gloves used in fire extinguishing operations on the dexterity of the hands and fingers

The most common problems of firefighters is the loss of performance while using protective gloves. Due to the variety of fire gloves in Iran, this study aimed to investigate and compare the effect of these gloves on hand dexterity performed.

Two models of the most common firefighting gloves were selected for investigation. Dexterity was evaluated using four standard tests such as Bennett, Minnesota, Pegboard and Modified Pegboard in forty male students for both gloves. The Spearman correlation coefficient, Wilcoxon, and Friedman test were used to comparison dexterity and effective factors.

The type of gloves has a significant effect on dexterity (P< 0.001). The findings showed that the modified Pegboard test has high sensitivity and can be used to measure fingers dexterity. Pegboard test is not suitable for measuring dexterity due to lack of sensitivity and severe reduction in scores. Bennett and Minnesota tests can be used to measure the overall hand dexterity due to their same trends. But Minnesota according to less fatigue and solving other problems, can be used instead of the Bennett test.

The various gloves of the firefighters in the market have different effects on the dexterity of the hands and fingers that firefighting organizations should pay attention to it. Modified Pegboard and Minnesota tests are recommended to assess dexterity when using firefighting gloves.