(01) CHARACTERISTICS OF SLOW AND FAST PERFORMERS ON A FIREFIGHTER AIR CONSUMPTION TEST

The air consumption test is an occupational-specific assessment in the fire service. This test requires firefighters to complete tasks while wearing bunker gear and a self-contained breathing apparatus. While it may be valuable for fire administrators to know what separates slow and fast performance on the test, there is little published data available.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare demographics and physiological determinants of slow versus fast performers on the air consumption test.

Methods: One-hundred and sixty career firefighters (12 females) completed health assessments in addition to the air consumption test for annual departmental physical abilities testing. The air consumption test consisted of the 10 following tasks: one-arm hose carry, ladder carry, hose drag, two separate ladder climbs, sled pull, forcible entry, victim rescue, ladder lower, and equipment carry. Between tasks firefighters walked 50 to 100 feet. Firefighters moved through the 10 tasks for one completion of the test. To measure air consumption, the pre- and post-test bottle pressure (delta pressure) was calculated. The time to complete the test was recorded. Physiological metrics such as body mass index (BMI), exercise maximal heart rate, body fat percentage (BF%), and maximal relative oxygen consumption (VO₂max) from a cycle-based graded exercise test were also recorded. K-mean clustering was used to dichotomize between slow and fast performance groups dependent upon time to task completion during the air consumption test. Data is presented as means and standard deviations (Table 1). Independent samples T-tests in addition to Cohen’s d measures of effect size were used to test for differences in demographic and physiologic metrics between slow and fast groups. Alpha level was set to 0.05. RESULTS: The results show 94 firefighters were fast and 66 firefighters were slow on the air consumption test. The T-test results show no statistically significant differences in slow and fast performers for age (p = 0.30, t = -1.05, d = 0.17), BMI (p = 0.07, t =  -1.85, d = 0.32), or exercise maximal heart rate (p = 0.32, t = 0.99, d = 0.16). There were significant differences between slow and fast performing groups for BF% (p < 0.01, t = -3.35, d = 0.57), VO₂max (p < 0.01, t = 3.52, d = 0.58), air consumption (p < 0.01, t = -4.87, d = 0.81), and total task time (p < 0.01, t = -15.04, d = 2.58).

Conclusions: BF%, air consumption, VO₂max, and total task time were significantly better in fast firefighters during the air consumption test. Age, exercise maximal heart rate, and BMI did not have significant differences between slow and fast performers during the air consumption test. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: High rates of cardiovascular disease accompany low aerobic capacity and poor body composition in the fire service. Firefighters’ overall health would benefit from exercise. Prescribing exercise to firefighters may improve performance during the air consumption test.

Acknowledgements: None