Firefighters Health – Alarming rates of overweight and obesity
A study published in the journal of Obesity examined the health and fitness of new recruits for Boston-area emergency services. The study included 370 firefighter, emergency medical technician, and paramedic recruits with an average age of 26 years-old between October 2004 and June 2007. Out of the 370 recruits, 1 out of 5 were of normal weight, ~44% were overweight, and 33% were obese. The weight of the young recruits is significantly higher than older veteran firefighters from the 1980′s and 1990′s.
All recruits must pass a physical fitness treadmill test, which 93% of the overweight recruits did pass; however 42% of the obese participants failed the standard fitness test. Evidence that it isn’t muscle mass causing BMI scores to be high, which is a common misconception in the emergency responder community. Significant findings due to the increasing death rate in emergency responders due to cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal injuries. It’s critical for emergency responders to be fit since they are responding to life-and-death situations. Obesity can lead to sleep apnea, which in turn results in drowsy, less alert emergency personnel. Enforcing fitness guidelines and making BMI a vital sign during medical examinations is a step towards improving the health of our emergency service recruits and veterans.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Top 5 Key Strategies to Lose Weight Permanently
Great link Lisa
I'll share it with my group too
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