Abstract
In some countries, obesity rates among police officers are higher than the general public, despite physically demanding jobs. Obesity rates based on body mass index (BMI) may lack accuracy as BMI does not directly address body composition. Since data are lacking for obesity rates among Russian police officers, this study documented and compared officer obesity rates to the adult Russian population and compared the accuracy of body mass index (BMI) for obesity classification to two direct measures of body composition. Moscow region police officers (N = 182, 84% men) underwent height, weight, waist circumference (WC), and body fat percentage (BF%) bioelectrical impedance measurements during annual medical examinations. BMI-defined obesity rates were 4.6% for men and 17.2% for women, which were >3 and >1.8 times lower than Russian adults, respectively. WC-defined obesity rates were similar to BMI (3.3% for men and 10.3% for women), but BF%-defined obesity rates were much higher (22.2% for men and 55.2% for women). Although obesity rates were lower than those found among police officers in other countries, BMI alone was not a particularly accurate method for classifying weight status among Russian police officers.
Highlights
Policing is an important worldwide government function for citizen protection
Of the 243 eligible police officers solicited during annual medicals, 182 consented to participate
We found that body mass index (BMI)-defined obesity was relatively accurate for men and women police officers when compared to waist circumference (WC)-defined obesity, resulting in more false positives than false negatives
Summary
The job-demands of police officers require them to have higher levels of fitness than most other occupations [1] as they must be prepared to respond to physical challenges on a regular basis (e.g., chase suspects, subdue resisting arrestees) [2]. Weight status is a factor in the hiring process to ensure adequate job performance capacity [3]. For example rates of overweight and obesity combined based on body mass index (BMI) are up to 80% among Iowa, US police officers [3]. BMI has been known to overestimate obesity among muscular individuals and underestimate obesity among those with low muscle mass due to its reliance on height and weight rather directly assessing body composition [7]. Among US police officers, BMI has incorrectly identified participants as obese 48.8% of the time [3]. The bulk of misclassifications were not due to increased
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