Thermoregulatory Responses After Uphill Running While Wearing Enforcement Personnel Clothing

Abstract

The choice of clothing for enforcement personnel is vital to ensure minimum physical interference and optimum freedom of movement. The clothing type and fibre composition are important factors that have strong influence on the activities of enforcement personnel. This study presents an evaluation of the thermoregulatory responses for two type of enforcement personnel clothing after uphill running with different material composition.  Eight recreational trained respondents (age, 24.4 ± 2.3; height, 166.9 ± 3.3; body weight, 64.0 ± 5.8; BMI 23.0 ± 1.8) completed an 8 km run on a treadmill with 6% elevation wearing enforcement personnel clothing. Both clothing used in the trials were made of polyester/cotton (P50C50) and nylon/cotton (N20C80) material composition. The finding revealed that compared to P50C50 clothing, the N20C80 clothing does not have a good thermal balance. The loss of body mass did not vary significantly but the sweating rate differed significantly between trials (P = 0.008). The Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of the participants was rated higher for N20C80 as compared to P50C50. The thermal sensation (P < 0.001), sweating sensation (P = 0.05), skin wetness (P = 0.007), clothing comfort (P < 0.01) and clothing humidity (P = 0.001) were significantly greater with N20C80 compared to P50C50 during exercise. The P50C50 clothing was more convenient to wear for the uphill running during the exercise. This study suggested that P50C50 would provide a better thermoregulatory response to regulate the thermal equilibrium between human skin and the environment.