Efeitos de diferentes tipos de uniformes na termorregulação de militares da Marinha do Brasil

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: During physical activity, the difficulty of heat dissipation may lead the individual to present with hyperthermia and homeostatic disorders. In this sense, suitable uniforms can assist military by providing better operation of heat exchanges. The Brazilian Navy employs a standard cotton camouflage with a cotton t-shirt underneath the uniform, but it is commonly used an adaptation of this uniform consisting of a lighter polyester combat-shirt in the thorax region. Therefore, this study aims to compare body mass variation, uniform weight variation, thermal comfort, skin moisture sensation and thermal sensation in military personnel during 5 km running activity using two types of camouflage made of cotton or polyester. METHOD: The test began with the distribution of volunteers in two groups (G1 and G2), for convenience, followed by the measurement of body mass and dry mass (only the upper part - jacket or shirt and shirt), followed by by subjective measurement on the thermal comfort scale, the skin moisture perception scale, the thermal sensation scale. 12 subjects then ran 5 km on track on a track and, having completed the activity, each participant provided PSE values on the Borg scale, the thermal comfort scale, the skin moisture perception scale, the thermal sensation scale. ; In addition, the body mass and weight of the uniform were measured again. RESULTS: The subjective perception of effort on the Borg scale, ranging from 6 to 20, presented a mean value of 15 ± 1.7 for both groups. The loss of body mass through sweating was 1.1 kg for G1 (polyester) and 1.0 kg for G2 (cotton). Anova Two Way test showed no significant difference (P = 0.4789). The average water retention in uniforms was 110 g for G1 (polyester) and 121 g for G2 (cotton), with the Anova Two Way test showing no significant difference between groups (P = 0.7114). There was also no significant difference when evaluating the subjective perception of thermal comfort (P = 0.0783), skin humidity (P = 0.2980) and thermal sensation (P = 0.7027) scales. CONCLUSION: The study did not observe any difference in body mass, uniform weight, thermal comfort, skin moisture sensation and thermal sensation between the two types of uniforms evaluated.