Optimization of load carriage at desert environment
Section snippets
Background
Personnel's safety is always an important factor when it comes to design and development of guidelines for load carriage in any particular environment. Performance and safety of personnel are equally essential for better survivability in any circumstances. In any military environment, requirement of load carriage varies according to the soldier's mission duration, requirements and the location they are deployed to. It is important to optimize the load, which should be carried by an individual
Study location
The study was conducted at Bikaner (28°1′ East longitude & 73°19′ North latitude), Rajasthan a desert environment during the month of June–July. The temperature, wind velocity and relative humidity as mean ± SD are 40.02 ± 0.55 °C, 11.62 ± 4.02 Km h−1 and 38.46 ± 6.10% respectively.
Participants
Nine male infantry soldiers of SHAPE-I standard volunteered for this study. The mean ± SD of age, height and weight was measured as 25.22 ± 1.02 years, 170.78 ± 0.95 cm and 66.56 ± 2.38 Kg respectively. Participants
Results
Cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses (HR, VE, RF, VO2, EE and RWL) with and without load carriage condition at marching speed of 6.13 ± 0.40 Km h−1 are presented in Table 2. Cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses showed an increasing trend with an increase in magnitude of load (Fig. 2). Additionally, a strong positive correlation of VO2 (r = 0.99, p < 0.001), RF (r = 0.98, p < 0.001), VE (r = 0.99, p < 0.01), EE (r = 0.99, p < 0.001) and RWL (r = 0.99, p < 0.01) was observed with the
Discussion
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of load and desert environment on Cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses. It was observed that studied parameters linearly increased with increasing load. The findings of the present study are consistent with the earlier work of Imangulova et al., 2016; Strydom et al., 1966; Todd and Scott, 2002. During carrying of 10.7 Kg load HR, VO2, EE, RF, VE and RWL (%VO2max) were increased 13.88, 18.20, 20.16, 7.86, 19.30 and 23.71% respectively in
Conclusion
Present study concluded that physiological responses increased with increasing load with respect to no load condition. Load carrying capacity of an individual depends on walking speed, gradients, terrain and environmental conditions. Based on physiological limits of 50%, 60% and 75% of VO2max and linear regression equation, optimum loads or maximum permissible load are 6.27 Kg (9.42% BW, 50% RWL) for 8 h, 13.70 Kg (20.58% BW, 60% RWL) for 2 h and 24.86 Kg (37.35% BW, 75% RWL) for 30 min for
Ethical approval and consent to participant
The study protocol conformed to the principles outlined by the Declaration of Helsinki protocol, 1993. An ethical clearance was obtained in prescribed format from the Ethical Clearance Committee of Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, Defence Research and Development Organization. Volunteers were briefed about this study. A written consent was obtained to participate in the study.
Consent for publication
Consent for publication has been obtained.
Availability of data and materials
Raw data were generated by the host institution. Derived data supporting the finding of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Funding
This work was funded by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) (Grant no: S&T-09/DIP-251), Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
Author's contributions
MP was involved in experiment design, data collection, interpretation and manuscript drafting. AY was involved in interpretation and manuscript preparation. KA was involved in data analysis. TC was involved in data collection. DB was involved in data collection and statistical analysis. BK was involved in overall technical and administrative guidance and supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to express gratitude to volunteers for their participation in the study. They are thankful to Defence Research and Development Organization, Ministry of Defence, Government of India for funded this project.
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