Investigation on the working time, energy expenditure and fatigue were carried out for members of three families engaged principally in raising silk worms.
Group examinations of physical conditions and blood constituents and survey of nutritional intake were performed on the residents, including the above families, in a community in Fukueisland, Nagasaki-prefecture.
The results were as follows;
1) The average values of energy expenditure on a most busy day in a raising period of silk worm calculated to be 3150 kcal (max. 3500 kcal) for males, 2340 kcal (max. 2890 kcal) for females of the above three families. Their working times on this day were about 14 hours.
2) The physical fatigue of the subjects was estimated by means of Fliker frequency, near point and threshold of patellar reflex. Remarkable changes of these values were found, suggesting the heavy physical load of the raising works, and the changes were more remarkable in olders and females than in youngers and males.
3) Donaggio's reaction and Na/K in the first urine of morning were investigated at an interval of five days during one period of silk worm raising.
The Donaggio's reaction values were increased about two times higher in the latter term, on the other hand Na/K dropped in the former term of the period.
4) The group examinations of the inhabitants in the community showed that the body fat of silk raising farmers were fewer than that of the farmers engaged in other kinds of farming reported by the present authors.
Blood values (Ht, Hb and TP) of them in 1975 were lower than in 1974, because one more raising period was added and so the physical load of them might be greater in '75 than in '74.
5) The nutritional intakes of silk raising farmers were almost as same as these of the farmers in other districts.