Energy Expenditure Estimation for Forestry Workers Moving on Flat and Inclined Ground

Forestry workers endure highly physical workloads. Japanese forestry workers experience additional up-and-down movements due to geographical features. Fatigue is a common cause of injury. This pilot study aimed to determine an appropriate method for estimating energy expenditure while moving across...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forests 2023-05, Vol.14 (5), p.1038
Main Authors: Okuda, Masayuki, Kawamoto, Yutaka, Tado, Hiroyuki, Fujita, Yoshimasa, Inomata, Yuta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
accelerometer
Accelerometers
Agricultural laborers
Bioenergetics
Camcorders
Energy
Energy expenditure
Energy metabolism
Estimation
Fitness equipment
Forestry
Forestry research
forestry workers
Forests and forestry
global navigation satellite positioning system
Global navigation satellite system
Global positioning systems
GPS
Heart rate
heart rate index
Metabolism
Occupational health and safety
Officials and employees
oxygen consumption
Physical workload
Physiological aspects
Pilot projects
Vertical motion
Walking
Workers
Workload
Workloads
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Summary:Forestry workers endure highly physical workloads. Japanese forestry workers experience additional up-and-down movements due to geographical features. Fatigue is a common cause of injury. This pilot study aimed to determine an appropriate method for estimating energy expenditure while moving across inclined ground to simulate a Japanese forest. Six participants wore a portable indirect calorimeter (V˙O2), heart rate (HR) monitor (17 g), accelerometer (20 g; vector magnitude; VM), and a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) device. They walked shouldering 20 kg of weight on flat, 15°- and 30°-slopes. The time course of HR was similar to that of V˙O2, but that of VM and the vertical movement varied from that of V˙O2. GNSS cannot correctly detect vertical movements. The HR index (HRI), indicating the ratio of activity HR to resting HR, was significantly correlated with the metabolic equivalent of the task (MET) calculated from V˙O2 (r = 0.932, p < 0.0001), which fit the previously proposed formula for METs (METs = HRI × 6 − 5). However, VM was not correlated with VM (r = 0.354, p = 0.150). We can use HRI to measure the workload of Japanese forestry workers with a small burden in the field.
ISSN:1999-4907
1999-4907
DOI:10.3390/f14051038