The Applicability of The Edholm Scale for Activity Studies in Industry

Abstract The recording of occupational activities with a standardized diary method according to Edholm was carried out on 120 men in six branches of industry. Heart rate and activities were recorded continually over the shift, heart rate being used as a control for the strain in single activity categories. The result showed that the changes in activities were overestimated in branch-specific and position-specific groups without particular physical work. The overestimation of activity changes was found both in cases where the diary was kept by the subject and where trained observers were used. It is concluded that the classification of occupational activities should be carefully controlled with parallel recording of heart rate. To improve the applicability of diary methods limiting values of heart rate and relative load for single activity categories are suggested.