Indicators to assess physiological heat strain – Part 3: Multi-country field evaluation and consensus recommendations
Leonidas G. Ioannou, Lydia Tsoutsoubi, Konstantinos Mantzios, Maria Vliora, Eleni Nintou, Jacob F. Piil, Sean R. Notley, Petros C. Dinas, George Gourzoulidis, George Havenith, Matt Brearley, Igor B. Mekjavić, Glen P. Kenny, Lars Nybo, Andreas D. Flouris
Abstract
= 0.016 to 0.427; p < 0.001), reflecting the importance of adopting more sophisticated TSIs. Nearly all TSIs correlated with mean skin temperature (98%), mean body temperature (97%), and heart rate (92%), while 66% of TSIs correlated with the magnitude of dehydration and 59% correlated with core body temperature (r = 0.031 to 0.602; p < 0.05). When evaluated against the 17 published criteria, the TSIs scored from 4.7 to 55.4% (max score = 100%). The indoor (55.4%) and outdoor (55.1%) Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature and the Universal Thermal Climate Index (51.7%) scored higher compared to other TSIs (4.7 to 42.0%). Therefore, these three TSIs have the highest potential to assess the physiological strain experienced by individuals working in the heat.