The Effect of Body Fat Percentage on Firefighter's Job Performance and Fitness Level

Abstract

Despite the National Fire Protection Association guidelines for periodic medical surveillance and the intense physical requirements of firefighting firefighters are not required to maintain minimum physical capacities or follow any fitness exercise program. Inactivity can lead to accumulation of body fat (BF) which can affect firefighter's job performance and fitness level. PURPOSE: The purpose of this project was to identify the relationships between %BF and various parameters such us fitness variables and job performance. METHODS: Thirty five experienced firefighters participated in the study. The fitness parameters were obtained as follow: Bioelectrical impedance was used to calculate %BF. The number of push-ups, and sit-ups to exhaustion were used as measures of muscular endurance. Forestry step test was used to evaluate the aerobic fitness (VO2 max). Upper and lower strength was measured using the one maximum repetition test (1-RM) for bench press and squat tests respectively. A Job task was simulated through a previously validated timed ability test consisting of firefighting related tasks. RESULTS: Pearson correlation coefficients were used to identify the relationships between %BF and the rest of the variables. A significant positive correlation (r= 0.48, p= 0.0035) was observed between the time to complete the simulated job tasks and %BF. Body weight was also positively correlated (r= 0.64, p > 0.0001) with %BF. Body Fat percentage was negatively correlated with VO2 max, (r=-0.36, p= 0.0315), push-ups to exhaustion (r=-0.62, p > 0.0001) and 1-RM bench press test (r=-0.32, p= 0.05). A marginal negative correlation (r=-0.30, p= 0.08) was observed between sit-ups to exhaustion and %BF. CONCLUSIONS: Increased %BF was associated with poor performance on most of the fitness parameters that are crucial to firefighting. Poor job performance was also associated with increased %BF. It is hoped that the results of this study would encourage administrators to mandate a physical fitness program that will help firefighters improve body composition and consecutively job performance.