Authors:
Dania Furk
;
Luís Silva
;
Mariana Dias
;
Phillip Probst
and
Hugo Gamboa
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Instrumentação, Engenharia Biomédica e Física da Radiação (LIBPhys-UNL), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Keyword(s):
Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Workload, Occupational Health.
Abstract:
Automobile assembly workers have to perform repetitive tasks with varying workload volumes, according to
their assigned workstation, on a daily basis. With inadequate recovery, this type of occupational activity has
been shown to cause cardiovascular problems. Despite these concerns, cardiovascular and respiratory adaptations to workload variations are often overlooked. This study aims to analyze Electrocardiogram (ECG) and
Respiratory Inductance Plethysmography (RIP) data to understand the evolution of cardiorespiratory adaptations to three specific work volumes. A sample of sixteen male operators (age = 38±8 years; BMI = 25 ± 3
kg.m2
) volunteered from three workstations (H1, H2 and H3) with different work cycle durations (1, 3 and
5 minutes, respectively). The results showed that activities with distinct workloads cause different responses
through the data collection in cardiovascular load, heart rate variability (HRV), and respiratory frequency, variability, and coordinati
on. The workload volume and work phase both influenced the cardiorespiratory acute
response of the operators on the automobile assembly line, something that could improve individual-specific
management of tasks assigned to workers.
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