Short- and long-term health consequences of workers during consecutive days of heat stress

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Riana Pryor, PhD, ATC is an exercise scientist and clinician with a career goal of becoming an independent investigator identifying strategies that minimize the impact of challenging environments on worker health and safety. Candidate: Dr. Pryor is an Assistant Professor of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at the University at Buffalo. Her research explores heat strain during physical activity in laboratory and field settings. Training: The proposed career development plan will build upon her previous experience to achieve the following training aims: 1) develop expertise in the use of wearable technologies to monitor worker fatigue and prevent injury, and 2) acquire expertise in the impact of repeated heat exposures on human health. Dr. David Hostler will serve as her primary mentor with Drs. Lora Cavuoto, Zachary Schlader, and Gregory Wilding rounding out the mentorship team. Research: Heat stress increases musculoskeletal injury risk and reduces productivity due to fatigue, hyperthermia, and dehydration, which negatively impacts multiple NORA industry sectors (i.e., Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing, Construction, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas Extraction, Public Safety, Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities). Additionally, there are long term health consequences to repeated heat exposures that are only now being articulated. As an example, a growing body of research associates consecutive days of acute kidney injury as a contributor to chronic kidney disease. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the degree to which current NIOSH recommendations for work in the heat adequately manage fatigue, hyperthermia, and dehydration to minimize injury and illness. Without thoughtful evolution of these recommendations, workers may be at unnecessary risk of short-term (e.g., musculoskeletal injury) or long-term (e.g., chronic kidney disease) deleterious health consequences. Our study will quantify fatigue during consecutive days of work in the heat while adhering to the NIOSH recommendations. Secondly, the impact of consecutive heat exposures on biomarkers of acute kidney injury will be determined. Summary: This proposal addresses the NIOSH strategic goals of reducing musculoskeletal disorders and chronic diseases. We address the NIOSH intermediate goal of monitoring risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders and understand chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology. These data will inform the NIOSH recommendations, resulting in multiple papers and presentations, and preliminary data for a future R01 examining the impact of heat strain on worker health throughout a work week. Future studies will explore factors impacting heat strain to refine prevention strategies. The research to practice framework will be embraced by evaluating intervention effectiveness to reduce health risks associated with heat exposures in laboratory and field settings in future grant submissions. Successful interventions will be translated and disseminated to workers for implementation in the workplace. This development award will allow Dr. Pryor to expand her research beyond her heat stress expertise, enabling her to become an independent investigator working to enhance worker health and safety.