Physical Fitness, Body Composition And Quality Of Life Among Brazilian Police Recruits

Abstract

Policing is a dangerous activity with intense physical and psychological demands that might impact police officers (PO) quality of life. PURPOSE: To evaluate physical fitness (PF), body composition (BC) and the quality of life (QL) among Brazilian male military police officer recruits. METHODS: Participants were 219 male PO recruits of a northern state of Brazil engaged on a mandatory 6-month training course before admission in the Police Department. The course is a 6-month full-time activity that includes 3 sessions of physical training/week and other police tasks. During the early part of the course, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and muscle strength (MS) were evaluated by means of the Cooper running test (CRF), curl up, pull up and push up tests (MS). BC was evaluated by BMI, body fat percentage (BF% - Jackson & Pollock 3 skin fold) and waist circumference (WC). In the same evaluation, QL was assessed by the WHOQOL-Bref, that ascertains the QL in four domains: physical, psychological, social, and environmental. We compared the QL by BMI categories (normal vs overweight+obese) using Mann-Whitney test. We also evaluated the correlation between PF tests and QL (Spearman test), always applying 5% level of significance. RESULTS: Mean (±SD) PO age and BMI were 25.5±3.6 years and 24.4±2.5 kg/m2. PO showed high level of PF and reduced QL (Table 1). There was no association between all PF components and all QL domains (rs<0.1, p>0.12). Using BMI, 33% of PO would be classified as overweight and 2.7% as obese, but all participants were in the normal range for BF% and WC (<20% and <94cm, respectively) CONCLUSION: We observed high levels of PF and a relatively impaired QL among young PO recruits. Contrarily to previous findings, QL was not correlated to PF which may be related to high demands during the course.Therefore, considering BF% and WC values, the adequacy of using BMI for BC evaluation in this population (young well fit PO recruits) needs further.Table 1: Descriptive values of physical fitness, BC and QL among 219 Brazilian male PO recruits