Cooling vests alleviate perceptual heat strain perceived by COVID-19 nurses

20Citations
Citations of this article
68Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

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 < 0.001) and thermal sensation (5 [4–7] versus 4 [2–7], pcondition < 0.001) improved in the cooling vest versus control condition. Only 18% of nurses reported thermal discomfort and 36% a (slightly) warm thermal sensation in the cooling vest condition versus 81% and 94% in the control condition (OR (95%CI) 0.05 (0.01–0.29) and 0.04 (<0.01–0.35), respectively). Accordingly, perceptual strain index was lower in the cooling vest versus control condition (5.7 ± 1.5 versus 4.3 ± 1.7, pcondition < 0.001, respectively). No differences were observed for the physiological heat strain index Tgi 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.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

de Korte, J. Q., Bongers, C. C. W. G., Catoire, M., Kingma, B. R. M., & Eijsvogels, T. M. H. (2022). Cooling vests alleviate perceptual heat strain perceived by COVID-19 nurses. Temperature, 9(1), 103–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/23328940.2020.1868386

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free