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Firefighters Are More Physically Active On-Duty Compared to Off-Duty
Allison M Barry1, Katie L Lyman2, Nathan D Dicks3
1Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS 66762, USA.
Abstract:
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.
Methods:
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 t-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.
Results:
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 (p = 0.026) for on- and off-duty days with a small-to-medium effect size (d = 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 (p = 0.011).
Conclusion:
As the results demonstrate, there is a dire need for increased PA levels in firefighters while on- and off-duty.
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