IS THE ???COOPER TEST??? STILL VALID FOR USE WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS? 358

Abstract

We studied a stratified (by age) random sample of 68 (58 male) incumbent officers from a force of 2200 (38.2 ± 8 yrs) on a variety of laboratory and field fitness tests. The criterion variable reported here is the Foot Pursuit Test with barriers and manikin drag (mean time = 2.36 ±.33 min:FPT). We have recently reported this FPT to be primarily a measure of aerobic function. The FPT was compared with Cooper field test items of 1.5 mile run/walk (1.5M), push ups (PU), sit ups (SU),% BF, FFEW, bench press(BP), and sit & reach (SR). The FPT and 1.5M were strongly related with VO2max by r = -0.78 and -0.81 respectively, and 0.78 to each other. This suggests the 1.5M is a good predictor of FPT performance. Other correlation coefficients related with FPT were:% BF, r = 0.60; PU, r = 0.62; SU, r = -0.40; BP, r = -0.54; FFW, r = -0.32; and SR, r = -0.12. Multiple correlational analysis revealed a R = 0.86 using the variables 1.5M and either the BP or PU with the FPT. Therefore, 75% (R2 = 0.75) of the variance for FPT performance can be explained by two “generalized” test. We conclude that at least two properly chosen “Cooper Test” items are good predictors of performance on a task related test of greater than 2-minutes duration.