Comparision Of Differences In Heart Rate Obtained During Graded Exercise Testing And Actual Fire Fighting Activities

Abstract

A firefighters' occupation is one that requires an amazing amount of stamina and physical effort when a situation arises requiring the firefighters' immediate attention. This situation can range from a fully involved house to a car wreck with injuries or possibly a false alarm. Firefighting will always have a significant element of danger. Another danger seems to be present though, as the most frequent cause of death results from coronary heart disease (CHD), which seems to be compounded by the environment typically associated with firefighting. Various coronary risk factors are combined with the physical nature of firefighting and poor health of the firefighters to produce a high probability of causing a heart attack. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to observe heart rate during fire fighting activities with the goal of determining if firefighters were able to produce a heart rate that exceeded their heart rate recorded from a previous maximal graded exercise test. METHODS: Seventeen participants wore heart monitors for the duration of the study from which heart rate data and a description of the activities performed during a call were recorded. RESULTS: Of the seventeen participants, eleven exceeded a heart rate threshold of 85% age predicted maximum. One firefighter was able to reach 105% of his age-predicted maximum heart rate. Routine firefighting activities were able to produce maximal, and supra-maximal heart rates. Results from a previous fitness assessment on the same firefighters indicated that of the eleven firefighters exceeding 85% of age predicted maximum, several had hypertension, dyslipidemia, undesirable body compositions, and below average VO2MAX scores. With all of these findings, it is no shock that a heart attack and sudden death are the cause of 44% of all firefighter deaths. CONCLUSIONS: While the nature of the occupation of firefighting cannot be changed, it would be in the firefighters' interest to begin an exercise program that is designed to reduce the coronary risk factors that are present.