Preliminary Evaluation Of Community Firefighter’s Health And Fitness Readiness Assessment

Community Firefighters are first responders whose position requires a level of health and fitness to complete their jobs in a safe and effective way. Most community fire companies have a combination of paid-on call and full-time firefighter types of positions, both performing the same physical skills and having same exposure to risks. As such, due to the nature of their jobs, it is important that they are periodically evaluated in relation to their health and fitness. PURPOSE: To describe a community-based health and fitness assessment program and the outcomes for community firefighters. METHODS: Community fire companies outsourced a local university to complete a battery of health and fitness assessments. Firefighters completed as battery of health and fitness tests, which consisted of the following variables: FVC, FEV1.0, FEV1.0, Ratio FEV1.0/FVC, BMI, %BF, Pred.MaxVO2, Handgrip Strength Right, Handgrip Strength Left, Pushup Test, YMCA Sit and Reach, Curl Up Test, Diastolic Blood Pressure, Systolic Blood Pressure, Height, Weight, Glucose, Cholesterol, Triglyceride, HDL, LDL, Non-HDL, Chol/HDL. Statistical analysis was completed using descriptive statistics and One-Way ANOVA comparing the type of firefighter (full-time vs. paid on-call) on the health and fitness variables. RESULTS: There were (n = 68) paid-on call and (n = 25) full-time (n = 25) firefighters evaluated. Full-time had higher BMI p = 0.32 (31.8 + 6.9 vs 28.7 + 5.8); diastolic blood pressure p = .019 (82.4 + 7.3 vs 77.9 + 7.5); weight p = .023 (225.2 + 50.9 vs 199.9 + 45.3); triglyceride p < .001 (149.3 + 100.2 vs 93.1 + 40.6); Chol/HDL p = .012 (4.2 + 1.3 vs 3.5 + .87), but lower pred.max. VO2 p = .045 (38.1 + 20.2 vs 45.6 + 13.9); lower Sit and Reach p = .033 (16.9 + 3.2vs 18.7 + 3.5) as compared to paid-on call firefighters. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that firefighters have higher health risks depending on employment type. Further study is needed to determine if health and fitness differences impact firefighters’ ability to perform duties effectively. Additional assessments will be needed to definitively make recommendations as this is only preliminary data without an equal number of firefighters in each employment group represented.