Impact of personal protective equipment on wearer's mood state, thermal comfort, health-related adverse reactions and cognitive ability

To evaluate the adverse effects on personal protective equipment (PPE) wearers, this study measured mood state, subjective thermal comfort indicators, health-related adverse reactions and cognitive ability in a precisely controlled climate chamber. Wearing PPE could increase the mean total mood disturbance (TMD) score from −7.45 to −4.4 ( p = 0.008) that would significantly worsen mood state and even could cause some health-related symptoms, including a high rate of perceived exertion, decreased concentration, sleepiness, fatigue, chest tightness, dizziness, thirst and decreased perceived air quality. The PPE wearers could be more affected by heat than by humidity under comfortable thermal conditions. Increasing the activity intensity of PPE wearers slightly could reduce the abilities of learning and memory (10.8 vs. 9.8, p = 0026) and attention (2.88 vs. 2.69, p = 0.016), but would increase the ability of expression (11.2 vs. 12.2, p = 0.028). However, wearing PPE for light activity intensities did not affect cognitive ability. The ability of attention and the perceived air quality showed a moderate positive correlation ( ρ = 0.43, p < 0.050). The findings obtained have increased our understanding of the adverse effects associated with wearing PPE and thus contributing to improved occupational health and product quality.