Can Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Be Used as a Biomarker of Thermal Comfort for Mine Workers?

Guoshan Wu, Heqing Liu, Shixian Wu, Guanglei Liu, Caihang Liang

International journal of environmental research and public health 2021 Jul 17

filter terms:

This study aimed to determine whether heart rate variability (HRV) can express the thermal comfort of mine workers. Eight subjects ran on a treadmill (5.5 km/h) to simulate heavy labor in three kinds of mining environments (22 °C/90%, 26 °C/90%, 30 °C/90%), respectively. Based on the measured electrocardiogram (ECG) data, the HRV of the subjects was calculated. The results showed that the HRV indices changed obviously under different temperature environments. In the neutral and hot environment, except for the LF, TP and LF/HF, there were significant differences in each index. However, there was no significant difference between the cold and neutral environments. The R-R intervals, the very low-frequency power (VLF), pNN20 and SampEN had strong negative correlation with the thermal sensation of people from sitting to work (ρ < -0.700). These indices may be used as thermal comfort predictive biomarkers of mine workers.

Citation

Guoshan Wu, Heqing Liu, Shixian Wu, Guanglei Liu, Caihang Liang. Can Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Be Used as a Biomarker of Thermal Comfort for Mine Workers? International journal of environmental research and public health. 2021 Jul 17;18(14)