The relationship between perceived exertion and heart rate of the older population during two different walking activities
Date
1984
Authors
Miller, Gordon D.
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Abstract
The relationship between Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and Heart Rate (HR) was studied in order to evaluate Borg's RPE-Scale as an accurate and complementary measure to HR monitoring in determining safe intensity levels during physical performance testing of older people. Specifically, this study examined the relationship between RPE and HR with regard to: (a) participants aged 50 years and over; (b) differences between performance test I ( 600 meter walk) and II ( 2 minute on-the-spot walk); (c) differences between men and women. Subjects included 105 females (X = 64.8 years) and 97 males (X = 64.3 years) who participated in either a timed 600 meter walk or a 2 minute on-the-spot walk. · To measure individual exertion, Borg's 15 point RPE-Scale was administered immediately following the activity, HR was also measured at this time by an Exersentry monitoring device. Pearson product moment coefficients of correlation were calculated to determine the relationship between RPE and exercise HR.
Significant correlations between RPE and HR were found for females in both the 600 meter walk (r=.48, 54 subjects, E=.0003) and 2 minute on-the-spot walk (r=.43, 51 subjects, E=.002). For males a significant correlation was found only in the 2 minute on-the-spot walk (r=.25, 62 subjects, E=.05). The significance of the difference between two correlation coefficients for independent samples was calculated to determine the difference between correlation values of performance test I and II, and between male and female participants. No significant difference was found between the correlation values of performance test I and II.
Regarding male and female participants the analysis illustrated a significant difference in the correlation values (E=. 05). ·It was concluded that: (a) the low correlation values obtained may illustrate the difficulty encountered when exercise intensity does not consist of progressively increasing workloads where the RPE of a particular workload is based on the RPE from previous workloads; (b) a similar relationship exists between RPE and HR for both performance test I and II: (c) a stronger relationship exists between RPE and HR for women than for men.