Abstract

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 setting 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 conducted to check heart rate during work. After observing the task, energy expenditure was estimated by EEPP.
RESULTS
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.
CONCLUSIONS
Because EEPP underestimated energy expenditure, it needs to be adjusted before use with Korean workers. It is suggested that different adjusting equations are formulated for regular and irregular tasks. Further study to develop a specific energy estimation model appropriate for Koreans is needed to obtain more precise estimation.

• Keywords: Energy Expenditure Prediction Program;Physical work load;Validity