Investigation into the thermal comfort of university students conducting outdoor training

Abstract

Heat stress negatively influences human health and performance, leading to lower efficiency in daily activities. In particular, strenuous training in outdoor hot environment conditions increases the potential for developing heat illness, such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. Few investigations have been conducted on heat stress during high-intensity outdoor training. The present study aims to summarize the evidence on the relations between high-intensity outdoor training and heat illness and between heat indices, including Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) and Universal Thermal Climate Temperature (UTCI), and environmental parameters. In this investigation, fresh students were invited as volunteers to answer the questionnaire about their heat perception with microclimate measurements when they had a rest in a session of outdoor training. The results showed that some students had heat syncope and more than 30% suffered from “profuse sweating.” The effect of air temperature on thermal comfort was most significant. The stress categories of WBGT, PET, and UTCI need to be modified for freshmen outdoor training to avoid overexposure in a hot outdoor environment.