TWO RESEARCHERS ASSOCIATED WITH THE University of Kansas School of Medicine have recently issued a report of their findings from a health survey of volunteer firefighters. Their reports begins:
Coronary heart disease causes approximately 45% of firefighter deaths annually. Although firefighters have clinically significant cardiac risks, a paucity of research and data exists.
Objective: To evaluate firefighters’ cardiac risk factors as well as their motivation to resolve these risk factors.
Methods: During a 3-month period, volunteer firefighters representing the 79 fire departments serving Nassau and Suffolk counties in Long Island, NY, were asked to complete a nonvalidated, 19-item questionnaire regarding their health habits, medical history, and demographics.
Results: A total of 730 surveys were returned among a potential study population of 20,590 volunteer firefighters. More than three-quarters of respondents met the criteria for being overweight or obese, and nearly 40% reported having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or both. Most respondents expressed at least some interest in attending a fire department-sponsored health lecture and participating in a fitness program.
Conclusion: Firefighters expressed desire to learn more about risk factor modifications and have fire departments take a more active role in helping firefighters improve their health. The effectiveness of resources and intervention programs should be assessed.
Firefighter Close Calls ( http://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/ ) has just acquired a copy of this report and have provided us with a link to a .pdf file that contains the entire 9-page summary report. We urge everybody to take a few minutes and check it out. In some ways it’s not surprising in what they found. But hopefully it will nudge a few more people into taking some positive action to improve their fireground health risk.
To view the file CLICK HERE.
