Scaling can provide valuable supplementary information for interpretation and understanding of subjects' level of physical effort
- It is not time consuming or intrusive to administer the test in most settings
- The RPE scale is most commonly used in exercise tests, or on patients in rehabilitation
- Useful for athletes in setting and monitoring suitable intensity levels for training
- In daily life, the scale can be used to compare exertion levels in such activities as mopping or vacuuming
If effect, the RPE scale can be applied in various settings including ergonomics, clinical/rehabilitation, training/athletics, and the measuring of mental workload.
Deciding what scale to use:
Borg RPE scale:
- most commonly used for tests of perceived exertion
- Main advantage is that the given ratings grow linearly with exercise intensity, HR, and VO2
- The ratings given by subjects are easy to compare with common measurements
Borg CR10 scale:
- more complex in its development than the Borg RPE scale
- gives responses that may be categorized as a ratio scale
- can be used to estimate most kinds of perceptual intensities
- commonly used to estimate pain intensity, such as angina pain or musculoskeletal pain
also used in human factors and ergonomic evaluations of difficulties or complaints in manual materials handling
