Validity of the Energy Expenditure Prediction Program to Evaluate Energy Expenditure During Work

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1 ) Objectives: The Energy Expenditure Prediction ProgramTM (EEPP) has been considered as a simple and quantitative method to evaluate physical work load. However, the adoption of EEPP directly to Korean workers is problematic because it was developed in a laboratory set - ting for Caucasians. Therefore, this study was conducted to validate EEPP for Korean workers. Methods: The study subjects consisted of 60 workers from two factories. Cycle ergometer test was conducted to calculate physical work capacity, and heart rate monitoring was conduct - ed to check heart rate during work. After observing the task, energy expenditure was estimated by EEPP. R e s u l t s: EEPP underestimated energy expenditure less than EEHR (energy expenditure checked by heart rate) did(p<0.0001). The factors effecting EEHR were EEPP and task type. After dividing the task into regular and irregular tasks, the irregular task had a larger difference between the values from the two methods. We provided task specific regression models between EEHR and EEPP. C o n c l u s i o n s : Because EEPP underestimated energy expenditure, it needs to be adjusted before use with Korean workers. It is suggested that different adjusting equations are formulat - ed for regular and irregular tasks. Further study to develop a specific energy estimation model appropriate for Koreans is needed to obtain more precise estimation.