Background

  • Firefighters have physically strenuous careers and must work long shifts(1),(2)
  • Shift schedules are often 24 hours on, 48 hours off; 48 hours on, 96 hours off (2)
  • Fire stations across a city receive varying quantities of calls (3)
  • Quality of life is a metric that has been previously investigated within the fire service(4),(5)
  • However, the influence of call volume, sex, and age on career firefighter quality of life is unknown

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of call volume, sex, and age on the quality of life in career firefighters.

METHODS

Participants

  • Two hundred and forty career firefighters from a department in Texas completed an online survey
    • 9 females; 231 males
    • Age = 41 ± 9 years,
    • BMI = 29.50 ± 4.55 kg/m2

Surveys

  • Participants were asked to self-report demographic data (i.e., age, sex)
  • Quality of life was estimated using a visual analog scale (VAS) from 0 to 100 arbitrary units (a.u.)
  • Participants were asked to mark their current quality of life on a line where “0” represented the worse state and “100” represented perfect quality of life

Call Volume

  • Stations’ call volumes were categorized into low, medium, or high based on the number of calls received

Statistical Analyses

  • A multiple linear regression analysis was completed to estimate the effects of call volume category (low, medium, high), sex, and age on quality of life in career firefighters
  • The independent variables were call volume category (low, medium, high), sex, and age
  • The dependent variable was quality of life
  • Demographic data is reported as mean ± standard deviations
  • Alpha level was set to 0.05

RESULTS

  • The sample consisted of 9 female and 231 male career firefighters
  • The quality of life reported for the sample was 78.87 ± 15.02 a.u.
  • The multiple linear regression outcomes indicate no significant influence of call volume category (low, medium, high), sex, and age (F(4, 212) = 1.921, p = 0.108, R2 = 0.017) on quality of life
Variable Estimate SE t p
Age -0.191 0.111 -0.04 <0.001 *
Sex (male) -8.906 5.453 0.01 <0.001 *
Medium Call Volume 2.505 2.442 0.79 0.002 *
High Call Volume 2.906 2.542 0.02 0.012 *

CONCLUSIONS

  • The findings from the current study suggest firefighters with “suboptimal” aerobic capacity (i.e., VO2max < 38 mL/kg/min) were associated with being:
  • Female; having poorer HDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, hemoglobin A1C, glucose, and diastolic blood pressure.
  • These results highlight the impact of poor cardiometabolic health on aerobic capacity and suggest a need for improving cardiometabolic health to enhance occupational performance.

DOES CALL VOLUME, SEX, AND AGE INFLUENCE QUALITY OF LIFE IN CAREER FIREFIGHTERS?

Kealey J. Wohlgemuth(1), Carina Velasquez(1), Brian M. Newman(2), Michael J. Conner(3), Jacob A. Mota(1)

(1)Neuromuscular and Occupational Performance Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX;

(2)Fort Worth Fire Department, Fort Worth, TX;

(3)Front Line Mobile Health, Georgetown, TX