Borg effort perception scale

The Borg scale is a quantitative tool that subjectively assesses the level of effort during physical work.

The scale was first developed in 1970 by Professor Gunnar Borg and is now used to quantify the intensity of effort and occupational health monitoring of lumbar risk for workers exposed to manual handling activities.

The tools available to apply the Borg scales

Borg PDF

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Two types of scales have been developed by Borg :

We distinguish two types of scale developed by Borg: the Rating Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale and the Category Ratio 10 (CR-10) scale.

The Borg CR-10 scale

The CR-10 was constructed after observing physiological parameters that do not evolve in a linear way with the intensity of physical work. This scale varies between 0 and 10.

The Borg RPE scale

The RPE was constructed to be linearly related to heart rate and oxygen consumption during physical work, taking into account the duration and environment of the work. This scale ranges from 6 to 20.

The Borg CR-10 scale

The perception of physical effort

The CR10 was constructed after the observation of certain physiological variables such as lactacidaemia. The results showed that the physiological data do not evolve in a linear way during physical work but rather adopt an exponential type of increasing function. This type of scale also allows for inter-individual comparisons, quantitative assessment of perceived exertion and mathematical description.

The first draft of the CR-10 was proposed by Borg in 1973. This scale still has 21 levels with only 7 levels of verbal annotations. This scale evolved into its quasi-definitive form in 1982 and again in 1998.

The equation for determining the intensity of perception :

R = a + c.Sn

R: perceptual intensity (Response);

a: basic subjective light intensity;

c: constant;

S: intensity of the imposed stimulus;

n : 1.6

The Borg RPE scale

The perception of physical effort

The RPE (Ratings of Perceived Exertion) scale provides a subjective assessment of perceived effort. In 1990, Borg presented an evolution of the original 1961 scale into 15 levels (from 6 to 20). Strong correlations were found between the subjective values of perceived exertion or RPE and heart rate

The RPE index seems to be more of a subjective estimate of the hardness of physical work than of its intensity during physical work of moderate effort intensity.

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