Assessing the Level of Physical Activity in the Workplace: A Case Study With Wearable Technology

Occupational hygiene requires evaluation of different risk sources in the workplace. The level of physical workload may create stress, fatigue and injuries. Therefore, activity monitoring provides valuable information for companies in assessing and solving possible hazards in the workplace. The article presents a system using wearable technology to monitor and evaluate physical workload with in situ measurements. The system uses a smartwatch and a mobile application for Android phones. During workload monitoring, the application displays physiologic variables such as heart rate, calories, body temperature, galvanic skin response and number of steps. Additionally, the system computes absolute and relative cardiac cost, and Frimat coefficients. Tests were performed on 10 individuals from a janitor staff (5 men and 5 women), monitoring every task during their most demanding hour. Results agree with the type of activity developed in different intervals, showing light and very light workload for different tasks in all workers.