Leveraging Walking Performance to Understand Work Fatigue Among Young Adults: Mixed-Methods Study

Area of Science:

• Human physiology
• Occupational health
• Mobile health technology

Background:

• Work fatigue negatively impacts long-term health.
• Assessing work fatigue in young adults using ubiquitous methods is challenging.
• Previous research explored walking parameters and perceptual measures for fatigue assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how walking rhythms and data streams reflect work-induced fatigue.
• To identify relationships between objective performance and subjective fatigue perception.
• To propose a mobile-based assessment for work-induced fatigue using multiple measurements.

Main Methods:

• A 2-day in-lab study involving young adults (N=26).
• Measurements included the stair climb test, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), reaction time, questionnaires, and activity diaries.
• Smartphone accelerometers collected walking performance data; generalized linear models analyzed results.

Main Results:

• Participants were grouped into fatigue-sensitive (42%) and fatigue-nonsensitive (58%) based on survey scores.
• The fatigue-sensitive group showed higher self-reported fatigue, fewer steps, and greater step-to-step time variability during the 6MWT.
• No strong correlation was found between subjective and objective fatigue measurements.

Conclusions:

• Walking parameters like step count and variability, along with scales like FSAS, reflect work-induced fatigue.
• Mobile-based walking measurements present an opportunity for assessing work fatigue in young adults.
• Further research can refine these mobile-based approaches for practical application.