Physiological workload assessment with the help of heart rate and perceived exertion rating on handcart pullers of wholesale trade markets of Delhi.

Background . Handling a heavy load on a handcart is common in the wholesale and retail trade markets in India and many parts of the globe. These carts transport goods between major markets, warehouses and transporters. We assessed the physiological workload among handcart pullers in terms of cardiovascular load (CVL), energy expenditure (EE), heart rate (HR), physiological cost of work and subjective rating of perceived exertion. Methods . Physiological workload was assessed with the help of HR during resting, working (15 minutes) and recovery state with a smart wearable device to extrapolate percentage of CVL, EE and physiological cost of work among handcart pullers. Subjective assessment of exertion was measured with the Borg 5-point rating scale among 35 cart pullers. Data were analysed using Microsoft Excel version 2010. Results . It was found that in handcart-pulling activity, EE was 11.706 kJ/minute, average working HR was 128 beats/minute and physiological cost of work was 89.09 beats/minute with no loads on handcart. This signifies that the activity falls under heavy physiological workload. The average percentage of CVL was found to be 50.5%, which falls under acceptable category for persons with a healthy cardiovascular system. Thirty-one (88.6%) of the participants reported the activity to be moderately heavy, whereas 4 (11.4%) participants mentioned it to be light. Conclusions . Handcart-pulling operation in this study without load on cart was found to be a heavy physiological workload. In real-time situations, the load, road conditions, long duration and traffic congestion is likely to result in a higher range of physiological workload on cart pullers.