Author(s): HAMADA, H., NAKAO, Y., TORIGOE, T., YAMAGATA, T., WATANABE, C., KAWASHIMA, M., OYANAGI, E., YODA, T., TAJIMA, M., WAKIMOTO, T., KREMENIK, M., MIYAZAKI, H., YANO, H., Institution: KAWASAKI UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL WELFARE, Country: JAPAN, Abstract-ID: 664

Introduction: It is estimated that approximately 240,000 people drown annually worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also recognized drowning as a problem, and in its first-ever report on drowning, the WHO lists "Ten actions to prevent drowning" as causes and countermeasures for water-related accidents. Also, in Europe, the importance of Water Competency, the qualities and abilities necessary for safe activities in and around water, has been demonstrated. The benefits of programs for long-distance swimming in the sea are important for children. However, due to safety concerns, fewer schools are implementing the programs. A better system for monitoring heart rate that enables the detection and prediction of drowning and improves the safety of long-distance swimming is needed. In this study, to predict drowning risk, we investigated a screening method using virtual reality (VR) and developed a real-time heart rate monitoring system.
Methods: 40 healthy subjects were timed in the 400m breaststroke and their peak VO2 was measured. Also, cardiac autonomic nerve activity was measured during swimming VR exposure. The heart rate was monitored during the long-distance swimming in the sea.
Results: Sympathetic activity after the VR exposure was significantly increased. Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between the heart rate monitored during the long-distance swimming in the sea and the 400m breaststroke time, but not peak VO2. We observed that the swimming VR exposure demonstrated an acute stress response, although there was no difference in the stated anxiety scores obtained from the STAI before and after the swimming VR experience.
Discussion: Swimming VR exposure might be an effective method for safe risk assessment. In addition, real-time heart rate monitoring showed a relationship between swimming ability and heart rate in the sea. One subject showed quickly increased heart rate to 170bpm and maintained for an hour, and then the heart rate dropped out to 80 bpm suddenly and the subject was stopped the long-distance swimming. Also, in another subject, heart rate repeatedly spiked just prior to rescue by the buoyancy device. Although the relationship between drowning and changes in heart rate have not been made clear until now, utilizing heart rate monitoring system will be useful device to conduct safer long-distance swimming. Furthermore, by using obtained from taking two systems for machine learning might contribute to preventing drowning.
Conclusions: The swimming VR video is an effective method to safely collect near-miss data. The heart rate real-time monitoring system developed in this study was usable in calm conditions. The data obtained showed a relationship between swimming ability and heart rate.