Physical work capacity and heart rate in construction workers

Abstract

Physical workload emphasizes the psychophysical demands that an employee faces during his/her workday, being important to analyze those aspects that influence his or her performance when carrying out his/her duties at work. To calculate construction workers’ physical workload and its influence on their health, evaluating functional adaptation to their work. 20 construction workers were analyzed, measuring their heart rate by means of a monitor with an optical sensor using Chamoux and Frimat’s criteria for work demands, verifying the perception of physical load using the Borg scale. Based on Frimat’s coefficient, a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 32 points were established, obtaining that 11 workers (55%) have an extremely demanding workload. According to Chamoux CCR: 7 workers (35%) had a hard cardiac cost, and 1 worker (5%) had a very hard cardiac cost. Borg scale determined that masonry, plastering, and foundry tasks are perceived as heavy work demand. In some studies, 75% of masons showed risk of physical overexertion and 50% showed a relative cardiac cost, according to the index. Likewise, other studies showed that stevedores had great exposure to this type of overexertion. Conclusions, Heart rate monitoring for determining physical workload is a reliable method and together with the Borg scale, they represent low-cost tools for health care.