Assessment of fatigue through physiological indicators: A short review

Abstract

The aim of this review was to obtain relevant information about fatigue assessment through physiological indicators, in order to focus in a future on how it affects psychomotor skills in general and fine motor skills of workers. Four databases (SCOPUS, Science Direct, PubMed and Web of Science) were used to conduct a data search according to crosswords of keywords. Three phases were used: two phases using exclusion criteria (date, type of article, language, othersuch as health condition or out-of-range age, duplicates) and one phase using inclusion criteria (objective method of measurement, physiological parameters measurementsHR, oxygen uptake, blood lactate, non-static activity/work). The first phase outcome (125 articles) was reduced to 7 publications considered significant, that used physiological parameters such as HR, oxygen consumption and blood lactate, as well as subjective methods to measure physical exertion, mostly RPE scale. Some studies revealed strong correlations between RPE and both HR and blood lactate, and suggested that the best way to determine physical fatigue is through publications a combination of assessments, not a single variable measure. In the other hand, articles selected have demonstrated the significance of considering, besides physiological parameters, subjective perception of effort during a training process to determine fatigue. (c) 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, London.