VALIDITY OF A HEART-RATE MONITOR DURING WORK IN THE LABORATORY AND ONTHE SPACE-SHUTTLE

Accurate heart rate measurement during work is required for many indus trial hygiene and ergonomics situations. The purpose of this investiga tion was to determine the Validity of heart rate measurements obtained by a simple, lightweight, commercially available, wrist-worn heart ra te monitor (HRM) during work (cycle exercise) sessions conducted in th e laboratory and also during the particularly challenging work environ ment of space flight. Three different comparisons were made. The first compared HRM data to simultaneous electrocardiogram (EGG) recordings of varying heart rates that were generated by an ECG simulator. The se cond compared HRM data to ECG recordings collected during work session s of 14 subjects in the laboratory. Finally, ECG downlink and HRM data were compared in lour astronauts who performed cycle exercise during space flight. The data were analyzed using regression techniques. The results were that the HRM recorded Virtually identical heart rates com pared with ECG recordings for the data set generated by an ECG simulat or. The regression equation far the relationship between ECG versus HR M heart rate data during work in the laboratory was: ECG HR=0.99.(HRM) +0.82 (r(2)=0.99). Finally, the agreement between ECG downlink data an d HRM data du ring space flight was also very high,with the regression equation being: Downlink ECG HR=1.05.(HRM)-5.71 (r(2)=0.99). The resu lts of this study indicate that the HRM provides accurate data and may be used to reliably obtain valid data regarding heart rate responses during work.