1. Cooling vests alleviate perceptual heat strain perceived by COVID-19 nurses
- Author
-
de Korte, Johannus Q., Bongers, Coen C. W. G., Catoire, Milène, Kingma, Boris R. M., and Eijsvogels, Thijs M. H.
- Subjects
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,Materials science ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Strain (chemistry) ,Physiology ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,COVID-19 pandemic ,Thermal comfort ,030229 sport sciences ,Thermal sensation ,Thermoregulation ,Phase-change material ,3. Good health ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Physiology (medical) ,Cooling vest ,VEST ,sense organs ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Composite material - Abstract
Cooling vests alleviate heat strain. We quantified the perceptual and physiological heat strain and assessed the effects of wearing a 21°C phase change material cooling vest on these measures during work shifts of COVID-19 nurses wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). Seventeen nurses were monitored on two working days, consisting of a control (PPE only) and a cooling vest day (PPE + cooling vest). Sub-PPE air temperature, gastrointestinal temperature (Tgi), and heart rate (HR) were measured continuously. Thermal comfort (2 [1–4] versus 1 [1–2], pcondtition versus 4 [2–7], pcondition condition gi and rating of perceived exertion across conditions. Average HR was slightly lower in the cooling vest versus the control condition (85 ± 12 versus 87 ± 11, pcondition = 0.025). Although the physiological heat strain among nurses using PPE was limited, substantial perceptual heat strain was experienced. A 21°C phase change material cooling vest can successfully alleviate the perceptual heat strain encountered by nurses wearing PPE.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF