Functional assessment of nutritional status: heart rate response to submaximal work.

The heart rate response to submaximal treadmill work been calculated using the heart rates and oxygen intakes obtained from normally nourished and undernourished adult male subjects during a maximal oxygen consumption test. Increased severity of malnutrition was associated with an increased heart rate response to the same submaximal work loads. The response was observed to decrease during a period of high protein dietary repletion of the most severely malnourished subjects. The data suggest the possibility of developing a submaximal work test for use in the field to provide physiological data to supplement anthropometric and biochemical information used to assess the nutritional status of populations.