Hiking fluid decision study

Hiking fluid decision study Hiking fluid decision study The objective of this project is to develop and evaluate a short educational video that provides specific hydration recommendations for hikers in hot, dry climates. The video will discuss fluid loss and the negative implications of poor hydration status during hiking, and provide ways for hikers to come up with personalized fluid recommendations. For the evaluation of the video, we plan to recruit 170 hikers over a period of 4 months during spring and summer 2020 to watch the video just before the start of a hike at one of the selected trails. At the end of the video, hikers will be asked if they think they brought enough fluid for their hike. Hikers will then have the opportunity to add fluid to their personal stock from our stockpile, as they see fit. We will determine hikers individual fluid needs by gathering pre-hike and post-hike urine samples, body weight and fluid intake. Additionally, we will continuously measure core temperature using a non-invasive telemetric core temperature sensor to determine the experienced heat stress of the hikers as we expect that this is the main factor driving fluid needs. Finally, participants will answer a short questionnaire about the severity of complaints experienced throughout the hike. These combined results will allow us to assess if the video is effective to influence whether hikers made the correct decision to stock up on fluids or not. We can also determine if hikers consumed adequate fluid during the hike.