How do sleep, physical activity, and diet contribute to aerobic fitness in U.S. firefighters?

Author(s): Hana Khan

Mentor(s): Joel Martin, Marcie Fyock-Martin; Kinesiology

AbstractAbstract: Firefighting involves high intensity work and requires firefighters to maintain optimal levels of health. Unfortunately, due to the nature of their occupation, firefighters’ sleep, diet, and physical activity (PA) are often compromised, contributing to low aerobic fitness.

Purpose: To determine how sleep, PA, and diet behaviors contribute to low respiratory fitness in U.S firefighters. Methods: Participants included [10 males, 3 females, age: 36(30, 41), years of service: 14(10, 18), height(cm): 181.9(177.5, 185), mass(kg): (122.4(109.6, 121.7)] and needed to be Prince William County Firefighters and have no prior history of CVE, pulmonary, renal, and metabolic disease. Participants took a diet (REAP-S), sleep (PSQI), and PA survey (IPAQ-SF). Anthropometric measurements were taken using a BOD-POD®. The 3-minute step test was used to determine aerobic fitness. A Mann-Whitney U test with a p value of 0.05 was used to determine significant variables between two groups: those who performed poorly on the step test versus those who performed above poor. Effect size was calculated using Glass rank biserial correlation coefficient. The project was exploratory, so alpha was set to <0.01. Results- Variable(W-score, p-value): BF %(15, 1), PSQI(18.5, 0.6086), REAPS(18.5, 0.6066), and MPA(21, 0.3458), LPA (18, 0.6709), and Sitting time(12, 0.6709) FFM(11, 0.5541) showed no significant differences between groups. However, FM(4, 0.07593) and VPA(29, 0.02139) were statistically different between the groups. Conclusion: Post- statistical analysis showed that only VPA(29, 0.02139) and FM(4, 0.07593) were statistically different between the two groups. Vigorous physical activity is necessary in firefighters given the intense nature of their work. Excess fat mass is also a hindrance to performance and health as it can increase risk for cardiovascular events. Fire stations need to work towards implementing fitness programs to sustain firefighter aerobic fitness.[/expand] [expand title="Audio Transcript"]Hello! My name is Hana Khan. I'm currently an undergraduate student at George Mason and I am majoring in Community Health with a concentration in Nutrition. I'm so excited to share my research question with everyone that I worked on during my Summer Team Impact Project. So, my research question is: How do sleep, physical activity, and diet contribute to aerobic fitness in U.S. firefighters? You might be wondering, why is this an important or relevant question to ask? As I spent time in the project, it became apparent to me that many firefighters are not able to maintain healthy fitness levels, despite often having to perform physically difficult tasks. Their sleep, diet, and physical fitness levels have been shown in numerous studies to be sub-optimal, and studies have pointed to correlations between these three. Research has shown that aerobic fitness is especially important in firefighters- and yet, many do not have the required fitness levels needed to safely perform their jobs. It turns out, CVD is a leading cause of death in firefighters, most likely due to their work duties. Aerobic capacity is also correlated to CVD, where a low capacity means a higher risk. So I really wanted to focus on that with this topic. There were 13 participants in total, and their specific demographic information is listed on the slide under the methods section. The participants took a few surveys to assess their diet, sleep, and physical activity status. They then had some measurements taken, such as height, weight, body fat, etc. And finally, they performed a three minute step test, which is essentially a test that is used to determine aerobic fitness that involved stepping on and off plates raised to 12 inches to a metronome set to 96bpm. We divided the participants based on how they performed on the 3 minute step test. So one category was for those who performed poor, and one was for those who performed above poor. So after looking at all these variables from the surveys and measurements as seen in the table, and running them through a Mann-U-Whitney test, we found that only Vigorous Physical Activity (which we got from the physical activity survey) and Fat Mass (which we got from the anthropometric measurements) were significantly different between these two groups. Now, I will say that a limitation of this study is definitely that the surveys have self reported values, which means the participants may over or underestimate their responses. However, it cannot be ignored that fat mass and vigorous physical activity are both very important to firefighter fitness and performance. Vigorous physical activity is needed on the job when climbing and carrying things is needed, and excess fat mass can be a hindrance to performance and also increase CVD risk. Thus, I believe it would be beneficial for fire stations to provide individualized fitness programs aimed at targeting aerobic fitness and keeping firefighters active instead of launching them into a physically intense situation from a very low active situation. That's all from me, thank you for listening and I hope you gained something valuable from this presentation![/expand]