Physical employment standards for UK Firefighters

minimum muscular strength and endurance requirements

Richard Stevenson, Andrew Siddall, Philip Turner, James Bilzon

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

3 Citations (Scopus)
57 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Objective: To assess sensitivity and specificity of surrogate physical ability tests as predictors of criterion firefighting task performance and to identify corresponding minimum muscular strength and endurance standards. Methods: Fifty-one (26 male; 25 female) participants completed three criterion tasks (ladder lift, ladder lower, ladder extension) and three corresponding surrogate tests (One-repetition maximum (1RM) seated shoulder press; 1RM seated rope pull-down; repeated 28 kg seated rope pull-down). Surrogate test standards were calculated that best identified individuals who passed (sensitivity; true positives) and failed (specificity; true negatives) criterion tasks. Results: Best sensitivity/specificity achieved were 1.00/1.00 for a 35 kg seated shoulder press, 0.79/0.92 for a 60 kg rope pull-down and 0.83/0.93 for 23 repetitions of the 28 kg rope pull-down. Conclusions: These standards represent performance on surrogate tests commensurate with minimum acceptable performance of essential strength-based occupational tasks in UK firefighters.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)74-79
JournalJournal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Volume59
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017

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Firefighters
Sensitivity and Specificity
Aptitude
Task Performance and Analysis

Keywords

  • Physical employment standards; firefighting; muscular strength; muscular endurance; physical fitness; sensitivity and specificity.

Cite this

Physical employment standards for UK Firefighters : minimum muscular strength and endurance requirements. / Stevenson, Richard; Siddall, Andrew; Turner, Philip; Bilzon, James.

In: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 59, 01.01.2017, p. 74-79.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Stevenson, R, Siddall, A, Turner, P & Bilzon, J 2017, 'Physical employment standards for UK Firefighters: minimum muscular strength and endurance requirements', Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 59, pp. 74-79. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000000926
Stevenson R, Siddall A, Turner P, Bilzon J. Physical employment standards for UK Firefighters: minimum muscular strength and endurance requirements. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2017 Jan 1;59:74-79. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000000926
Stevenson, Richard ; Siddall, Andrew ; Turner, Philip ; Bilzon, James. / Physical employment standards for UK Firefighters : minimum muscular strength and endurance requirements. In: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2017 ; Vol. 59. pp. 74-79.
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