Aerobic capacity of urban women homemakers in Bombay.

Twenty-six healthy women homemakers residing in the metropolitan city of Bombay were studied on a treadmill and a cycle ergometer to determine their aerobic capacity (VO2 max) with a view to evaluating their cardio-respiratory fitness and ascertaining the job-demand-fitness-compatibility in household activities. The VO2 max was found to be significantly higher in treadmill experiments, i.e. 15% in absolute value and 18% in relative value, as compared with that obtained by cycle ergometry (p < 0.001). A much higher difference was observed in values derived from the two methods on the same subjects (i.e. 28% in absolute value and 31% in relative value). Thus, the VO2 max obtained from treadmill experiments may be regarded as the maximal aerobic power or the highest oxygen uptake that an individual can attain during exercise, which in the sample of the present study was recorded as 1.90 l min-1 (33.9 ml kg-1 min-1). The findings also revealed that age and body weight have a direct influence on VO2 max, which was found to be significantly correlated, positively with the latter and negatively with the former (p < 0.01 in both cases). The physiological job-demand of household activities seems to be compatible in relation to the VO2 max of the homemakers.

A rapid appraisal of occupational workload from a modified scale of perceived exertion.

A simple and rapid method of determining occupational workload among Indian women performing manual activities was developed based on the strong relationship between physiological responses and subjective feeling of exertion. A modified five point scale of perceived exertion, sequentially numbered 1 to 5, was created to simplify the complicated and time-consuming procedures using conventional methods of measuring energy expenditure, or even heart rate responses, during work of very short duration, especially in field situations. The scale denotes physiological workload: 1: very light; 2: light; 3: moderately heavy; 4: heavy; and 5: very heavy. A job-classification table based on energy expenditure and heart rate responses is also proposed, and different household activities such as grinding masalas, dish washing, sweeping, mopping, ironing, storing water, etc. have been graded accordingly.