Effect of Age and Life Characteristics on Variations of the Heart Rate Variability Parameters among Active Manual Workers

Abstract

Objectives: Due to innovation developments new methods can be applied also in the field of occupational health. Results of physiological measurements carried out in the workplace during work support the observation that age and life characteristics of the examined persons, work environment, working system, the working process significantly influence the changes of heart rate variability (HRV) parameters. These sources of information may be useful in developing health-oriented prevention programs. Methods: The physiological measurements were performed in the workplace in lying (resting) position, during the working process their results (HR, TP, VLF, LH, HF) were processed by correlation and regression analysis and statistically evaluated as a function of age and life characteristics (hypertension, smoking, body mass) and metabolism-syndrome parameters. Results: Evaluation of the results of nearly 4000 physiological measurements carried out in the workplace of more than 1000 participants showed that age had a close positive correlation with heart rate and close negative correlation with the HRV parameters (TP, VLF, LF, and HF). Considering also life characteristics (hypertension, smoking, body mass index, cholesterol, and triglyceride) beside age, can provide useful information which can be beneficial to develop health-oriented prevention programs. Conclusions: The results call attention to the possibilities of applying new methods (like HRV analysis) in the field of occupational health and work safety which can be used in the future in education, research, or organization of work, and for interest the health and safety of workers. The developments are multidisciplinary, complex and require the collaboration of physicians, engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians.