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Abstract Introduction Heat stress could increase the burden of death and illness in workers engaged in outdoor activities. Despite the growing attention on occupational risks caused by climate change, there is still little information on the alterations associated with thermal stress during different working activities. Objective The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between heat stress indicators and cardio-respiratory parameters during outdoor work activities using innovative wearable devices. Methods Twenty-five healthy workers employed in different outdoor contexts wore during their entire work shift a multiparametric wearable device integrating sensors measuring physiological parameters such as skin temperature, partial oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, heart rate. During the same days, measurements were taken of the climatic conditions in the working area. Results The correlation analysis between the climatic and the cardiorespiratory parameters recorded through the devices showed different significant correlations for each recruited worker. A significant positive correlation was found between radiant temperature and minimum skin temperature and heart rate, (r 0.64 and 0.63 respectively, p0.01), while a negative correlation was observed with maximum respiratory rate (r -0.7, p0.01). In contrast, air temperature showed a significant positive correlation with mean skin temperature and with minimum heart rate (r 0.78 and 0.65 respectively, p0.01). Conclusions The sensor devices made it possible to identify individual cardiorespiratory changes in response to different climatic conditions and to assess the adaptation of workers to thermal stress, enabling a precision medicine approach.
Schino et al. (Mon,) studied this question.