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Development of role-related minimum cardiorespiratory fitness standards for firefighters and commanders
- Source :
- Siddall, A G, Stevenson, R D M, Turner, P F J, Stokes, K A & Bilzon, J L J 2016, ' Development of role-related minimum cardiorespiratory fitness standards for firefighters and commanders ', Ergonomics, vol. 59, no. 10, pp. 1335-1343 . https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2015.1135997
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Taylor & Francis, 2016.
-
Abstract
- A minimum cardiorespiratory fitness standard was derived for firefighters following a metabolic demands analysis. Design and minimal acceptable performance of generic firefighting task simulations (i.e. hose running, casualty evacuation, stair climb, equipment carry, wild-land fire) were endorsed by a panel of operationally experienced experts. Sixty-two UK firefighters completed these tasks wearing a standard protective firefighting ensemble while being monitored for peak steady-state metabolic demand and cardiovascular strain. Four tasks, endorsed as valid operational simulations by ≥90% of participants (excluding wild-land fire; 84%), were deemed to be a sufficiently valid and reliable basis for a fitness standard. These tasks elicited an average peak steady-state metabolic cost of 38.1 ± 7.8 ml kg−1 min−1. It is estimated that healthy adults can sustain the total duration of these tasks (~16 min) at ≤90% maximum oxygen uptake and a cardiorespiratory fitness standard of ≥42.3 ml kg−1 min−1 would be required to sustain work. Practitioner Summary: A cardiorespiratory fitness standard for firefighters of ≥42.3 ml kg−1 min−1 was derived from monitoring minimum acceptable performance of essential tasks. This study supports the implementation of a routine assessment of this fitness standard for all UK operational firefighters, to ensure safe physical preparedness for occupational performance.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Engineering
medicine.medical_specialty
Physical fitness
Firefighting
Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation
Human Factors and Ergonomics
Task (project management)
Young Adult
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Task Performance and Analysis
physical employment standards
medicine
Humans
Duration (project management)
Monitoring, Physiologic
Analysis of Variance
Anthropometry
firefighting
business.industry
VO2 max
Cardiorespiratory fitness
030229 sport sciences
Middle Aged
role-related fitness
030210 environmental & occupational health
QP
United Kingdom
oxygen uptake
Cardiorespiratory Fitness
metabolic cost
Physical Fitness
Firefighters
Preparedness
Exercise Test
Physical therapy
Female
Physical demands analysis
business
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00140139
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Siddall, A G, Stevenson, R D M, Turner, P F J, Stokes, K A & Bilzon, J L J 2016, ' Development of role-related minimum cardiorespiratory fitness standards for firefighters and commanders ', Ergonomics, vol. 59, no. 10, pp. 1335-1343 . https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2015.1135997
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....5d7fd91b212b6f231bd5177e28459a92