Citation

Imbeau D, Desjardins L, Dessureault PC, Riel P, Fraser R. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 1995; 15(4): 247-259.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Four construction workers were tested on a laboratory submaximal cycle ergometer test to establish their heart rate (HR) by oxygen consumption (VO2) relationship. These workers then completed six simulations of a steel access scaffold assembling and disassembling task during which heart rate and oxygen consumption were measured simultaneously with portable monitoring equipment. Two of these subjects had little experience with this work while the others were experts. Two widely used types of scaffold frames were used in the simulation: "5-foot" closed frames and "6-foot" open frames. The mean VO2 measured during work ranged from 1.4 to 1.8 li/min. for a corresponding mean HR ranging from 131 to 155 bpm. There was a significant inverse relationship between relative intensity of HR selected by subjects and performance time. Subjects worked on average at 62% +/- 9% of their maximum heart rate range. Models were developed to estimate VO2 from field HR recordings. A certain heat stress had to be taken into account for some of the subjects in the development of these models. VO2 prediction from HR is feasible and can be fairly accurate for scaffold assembling and disassembling work as long as factors which have an impact on HR such as heat stress or incomplete recovery are accounted for.