TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating energy expenditure of head-hauling water and grain grinding from heart rate monitor measurements in northern Mozambique
AU - Russel, Kory C.
AU - Buman, Matthew P.
AU - Davis, Jennifer
AU - Haskell, William L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements: First, we specially thank the following Universidade Lúrio students without them the current study could not have been completed: Gimo Pequete, Francisco Filipe Ganijo, Valdimiro Francisco Paposseco, João Paulo Fernandes and Ornila Macuiane. We thank Universidade Lúrio, the UniLúrio faculty, and in particular Professor Carla Ganhão. Invaluable logistical support was provided by Marcelino Sendela and Nick Cariello. The current study was made possible by the Millennium Challenge Corporation through an impact evaluation of the Millennium Challenge Account’s Rural Water Point Implementation Program in Nampula, Mozambique. Financial support: Primary funding for the current research came from a United Stated Environmental Protection Agency STAR Fellowship (grant no. FP917363) for K.R. Additional funding came from a Rotary District Scholar Fellowship and a Stanford University Center for African Studies Summer Fellowship for K.R. The current study was funded in part by the Millennium Challenge Corporation through an impact evaluation of the Millennium Challenge Account’s Rural Water Point Implementation Program in Nampula, Mozambique (reference ID: DDI-MCC-MOZ-StanfordVT-2014-v01). The current study was hosted free of charge at the Universidad Lúrio in Nampula city, located in Nampula province, Mozambique. The funders were not involved in the design, analysis or writing of the current article. Conflict of interest: There are no conflicts of interest. Authorship: The research question and study design were formulated by K.C.R., J.D., M.P.B. and W.L.H.; the study was carried out by K.C.R.; data analysis was carried out by K.C.R., J.D. and W.L.H; and the article was written by K.C.R., with editing by J.D., M.P.B. and W.L.H. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Ethics of human subject participation: The current study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki, and all procedures involving research study participants were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Stanford University, California, USA and by the Comité Institucional Bioética Ciência de Universidade Lúrio in Nampula, Mozambique. Witten informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors.
PY - 2020/11/1
Y1 - 2020/11/1
N2 - Objective: Even though sub-Saharan African women spend millions of person-hours per day fetching water and pounding grain, to date, few studies have rigorously assessed the energy expenditure costs of such domestic activities. As a result, most analyses that consider head-hauling water or hand pounding of grain with a mortar and pestle (pilão use) employ energy expenditure values derived from limited research. The current paper compares estimated energy expenditure values from heart rate monitors v. indirect calorimetry in order to understand some of the limitations with using such monitors to measure domestic activities. Design: This confirmation study estimates the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) value for head-hauling water and hand-pounding grain using both indirect calorimetry and heart rate monitors under laboratory conditions. Setting: The study was conducted in Nampula, Mozambique. Participants: Forty university students in Nampula city who recurrently engaged in water-fetching activities. Results: Including all participants, the mean MET value for head hauling 20 litres (20·5 kg, including container) of water (2·7 km/h, 0 % slope) was 4·3 (sd 0·9) and 3·7 (sd 1·2) for pilão use. Estimated energy expenditure predictions from a mixed model were found to correlate with observed energy expenditure (r2 0·68, r 0·82). Re-estimating the model with pilão use data excluded improved the fit substantially (r2 0·83, r 0·91). Conclusions: The current study finds that heart rate monitors are suitable instruments for providing accurate quantification of energy expenditure for some domestic activities, such as head-hauling water, but are not appropriate for quantifying expenditures of other activities, such as hand-pounding grain.
AB - Objective: Even though sub-Saharan African women spend millions of person-hours per day fetching water and pounding grain, to date, few studies have rigorously assessed the energy expenditure costs of such domestic activities. As a result, most analyses that consider head-hauling water or hand pounding of grain with a mortar and pestle (pilão use) employ energy expenditure values derived from limited research. The current paper compares estimated energy expenditure values from heart rate monitors v. indirect calorimetry in order to understand some of the limitations with using such monitors to measure domestic activities. Design: This confirmation study estimates the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) value for head-hauling water and hand-pounding grain using both indirect calorimetry and heart rate monitors under laboratory conditions. Setting: The study was conducted in Nampula, Mozambique. Participants: Forty university students in Nampula city who recurrently engaged in water-fetching activities. Results: Including all participants, the mean MET value for head hauling 20 litres (20·5 kg, including container) of water (2·7 km/h, 0 % slope) was 4·3 (sd 0·9) and 3·7 (sd 1·2) for pilão use. Estimated energy expenditure predictions from a mixed model were found to correlate with observed energy expenditure (r2 0·68, r 0·82). Re-estimating the model with pilão use data excluded improved the fit substantially (r2 0·83, r 0·91). Conclusions: The current study finds that heart rate monitors are suitable instruments for providing accurate quantification of energy expenditure for some domestic activities, such as head-hauling water, but are not appropriate for quantifying expenditures of other activities, such as hand-pounding grain.
KW - Energy costs
KW - Hand-pounding grain
KW - Heart rate monitor
KW - Indirect calorimetry
KW - Metabolic equivalent of task
KW - Rural Mozambican women
KW - Water fetching
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U2 - 10.1017/S1368980020001019
DO - 10.1017/S1368980020001019
M3 - Article
C2 - 32611478
AN - SCOPUS:85088975826
SN - 1368-9800
VL - 23
SP - 2886
EP - 2897
JO - Public Health Nutrition
JF - Public Health Nutrition
IS - 16
ER -