Firefighters Are More Physically Active On-Duty Compared to Off-Duty

Physical inactivity, coupled with increasing obesity levels, in firefighters plays a key role in aggregated cardiovascular events. The purpose of this study was to investigate device-measured physical activity (PA) for firefighters while on- and off-duty to have a clearer understanding of their over...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-12, Vol.17 (24), p.9380
Main Authors: Barry, Allison M, Lyman, Katie L, Dicks, Nathan D, McGeorge, Christi R, Carper, Michael J, Walch, Tanis J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accelerometers
Body mass
Body Mass Index
Body size
Body weight
Cardiovascular Diseases
Careers
Exercise
Fatalities
Fire stations
Firefighters
Fires
Humans
Investigations
Obesity
Obesity - epidemiology
Occupational health
Overweight
Physical activity
Physical fitness
Statistical analysis
Weight reduction
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Summary:Physical inactivity, coupled with increasing obesity levels, in firefighters plays a key role in aggregated cardiovascular events. The purpose of this study was to investigate device-measured physical activity (PA) for firefighters while on- and off-duty to have a clearer understanding of their overall PA level. Twenty-nine career firefighters participated in this non-experimental, within-subjects study by wearing an accelerometer to assess PA intensities and step-count. Obesity was classified using body mass index (BMI). Dependent -tests were used to examine mean differences in PA intensities when on- and off-duty. Pearson product-moment correlations were used to assess the association between PA intensities when on and off-duty. According to the World Health Organization BMI categorizations, 20 firefighters were overweight, 9 were obese, and, thus, none were normal weight. Only light PA (LPA) was statistically significant ( = 0.026) for on- and off-duty days with a small-to-medium effect size ( = 0.47), meaning that on average, firefighters performed more minutes of LPA when on-duty compared to off. There was a significant difference between on- (9060.2 ± 2636.4) and off-duty (7495.3 ± 2835.8) daily step counts ( = 0.011). As the results demonstrate, there is a dire need for increased PA levels in firefighters while on- and off-duty.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph17249380