Review: Assistive technology for the benefit of users and carers

This paper describes the methodology and results of a review, carried out to get an overview of international research on effectiveness of lifting aids. A 62 terms data-base returned 3520 references. After screening the documents followed by quality assessment, 13 articles were left for the review. Generally, lifting aids were found to be effective, e.g. reducing absence due to work-related illness and thereby also reducing societal costs. However, user benefits, effectiveness in private homes and for informal carers were not addressed. Most studies were conducted in North America and the results need to be transferred into a European context where labour market structures, social benefits, and assistive technology provision are different.