Activity Level and Body Mass Index as Predictors of Physical Workload During Working Career

Satu K Mänttäri; Juha A H Oksa; Jussi Virkkala; Julia A K Pietilä

doi:10.1016/j.shaw.2019.09.002

Activity Level and Body Mass Index as Predictors of Physical Workload During Working Career

Saf Health Work. 2019 Dec;10(4):527-530. doi: 10.1016/j.shaw.2019.09.002. Epub 2019 Sep 9.

Authors

Satu K Mänttäri¹, Juha A H Oksa¹, Jussi Virkkala², Julia A K Pietilä³

Affiliations

¹ Work Ability and Working Careers, Unit of Research, Development, Training and Service of Occupational Health, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Oulu, Finland.
² Work Ability and Working Careers, Unit of Research, Development, Training and Service of Occupational Health, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland.
³ Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of inactivity and obesity, along with aging, has implications on work capacity of labor force. This study reports the relationships between activity level and BMI by age with objectively measured physical workload. Data were examined from a sample of 19 481 Finnish employees using an estimate of minute-to-minute oxygen consumption based on R-R interval recordings. The mean estimated %VO₂max during the working day was 12.1 (±3.6) and 15.1 (±4.5)% for men and women, respectively. Based on a linear model, the mean %VO₂max increased by 1.5%-unit per 10-year increase in age, by 2.1%-unit per 5 kg/m² increase in BMI, and decreased by 1.6%-unit if improving physical activity class by two (p < 0.001 for all). Overweight and obesity, together with inactivity, notably increases workload throughout the career, even though at young adulthood, the daily workload is almost the same for each person regardless of the BMI, activity level, or gender. This study highlights the importance of regular physical activity and normal weight in protecting the worker from excessive physical (cardiovascular) workload during the whole working career.

Keywords: Aging worker; Big data; Functional capacity; Physical activity; Work ability.