Does the Pre-employment Screening Process influence Health Status of Probationary Firefighters?
Main Article Content
Abstract
Aim
Variation exists in the hiring process by human resource departments within the fire service in the province of Ontario, Canada. This study sought to examine the association between the sequence of hiring practices and biophysical health components in screening for probationary firefighters.
Methods
Biophysical health and occupational assessments were conducted on 134 male probationary firefighter applicants hired by one of two different Ontario cities. Prior to being hired as probationary firefighters, City A applicants (N=58) passed a biophysical health assessment at the beginning of a screening appointment before successfully completing a psychological aptitude exam conducted on the same day. Conversely, City B applicants (N=76) passed a biophysical health assessments several weeks following the successful completion of a psychological aptitude exam as part of a longer screening process (range=28-56 days, mean=39+7.3). Following resting heart rate (RHR) and blood pressure (BP) measurements, and a vision and hearing exam, biophysical health measures including waist-to-hip ratio, body fat percentage (BF%), maximum aerobic capacity, 60-second sit-up, and trunk flexibility (TF) as well as completion of an occupational assessment were conducted.
RESULTS
City A applicants demonstrated significantly lower RHR, resting diastolic BP, BF% and higher z-scores for BF, TF and overall biophysical health assessment (p<0.05). Multiple regression analysis identified candidate age and sequence of assessment (i.e., biophysical health assessment at the end of the hiring process) found in City B as significantly detrimental factors contributing to poorer BF% (R2=21%), BF z-score (R2=22%), TF z-score (R2=10%) and overall biophysical health assessment z-score (R2=7%).
CONCLUSION
These results suggest that sequentially positioning the biophysical health assessment at the beginning of a short screening process will result in hiring a healthier probationary firefighter.
Article Details
The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.
References
2. Poplin GS, Roe DJ, Peate W, Harris RB, Burgess, JL. The association of aerobic fitness with injuries in the fire service. Am J Epidemiol 2014;179(2):149-55
3. Poplin GS, Roe DJ, Burgess JL, Peate WF, Harris RB. Fire fit: assessing comprehensive fitness and injury risk in the fire service. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2016;89(2):251-59
4. Gumieniak R, Jamnik V, Gledhill N. Physical fitness bona fide occupational requirements for safety-related physically demanding occupations: test development considerations. Health Fit J Can 2011;4(2):47-52
5. International Association of Fire Fighters 2012 Candidate Physical Ability Test Program Summary [Internet]. http://www.iaff.org/hs/CPAT/cpat_index.html on 07/10/2017
6. Williams-Bell F, Villar R, Sharratt M, Hughson R. Physiological demands of the firefighter candidate physical ability test. Med Sci Sport Exer 2009;3:653-62
7. Pachman J. Evidence base for pre-employment medical screening. Bull World Health Organ 2009;87:529-34
8. Jackson A. Preemployment physical evaluation. Exer & Sport Sci Rev 1994;22(1):53-90
9. Brownlie L, Brown S, Diewert G, Good P, Holman G, Laue G, Banister E. Cost effective selection of firefighter recruits. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1985;17(6):661-666
10. National Fire Protection Association 2013 NFPA 1582: Standards on comprehensive occupational medical program for fire departments [Internet]. http://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/document-information-pages?mode=code&code=1582. On 07/10/2017.
11. Firefighter Services of Ontario 2014 Pre-appraisal screening [Internet]. http://fireontario.com/services/clinical-assessment/pre-appraisal-screening/ on 07/10/2017.
12. Klentrou P, Montelpare WJ, Faught, BE. Clinical Exercise Physiology Lab Manual. Dubuque: Kendall-Hunt Publishing; 2000.
13. Faught B, Hay J, Cairney J, Flouris A. Increased risk for coronary vascular disease in children with developmental coordination disorder. J Adolescent Health 2005;37:376-80
14. Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. The Professional Fitness and Consultant Manual. Ottawa: Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Publishing; 1996.
15. Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. The Canadian Physical Activity Fitness and Lifestyle Approach, 3rd Ed. Ottawa: Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Publishing; 2004, pp. 7-48
16. Cooperative Personnel Services 2014. Fire services Entry-level tests [Internet]. http://www.cpshr.us/testrental/fs_entrylevel.html on 07/10/2017.
17. IBM. SPSS Statistics 19.0 User’s Guide. Chicago: IBM Corporation; 2010.
18. Fleg J, Morrell C, Bos A, Brant L, Talbot L, Wright J, Lakatta E. Accelerated longitudinal decline of aerobic capacity in healthy older adults. Circulation 2005;112:672-74
19. Sheppard RJ. Age and physical work capacity. Exp Aging Res 1999;25(4):331-43
20. Franklin S. The importance of diastolic blood pressure in predicting cardiovascular disease risk. J Am Soc Hypertens 2007;1(1):82-93
21. Kannel W, Kannel C, Paffenbarger R, Cupples L. Heart rate and cardiovascular mortality: The Framingham heart study. Am Heart J 1987;113(6):1489-94
22. Donovan R, Nelson T, Peel J, Lipsey T, Voyles W, Israel R. Cardiorespiratory fitness and the metabolic syndrome in firefighters. Occup Med 2009;59:487-92
23. Fahs C, Smith D, Horn G, Agiovlasitis S, Rossow L, Echols G, Heffernan K, Fernhall B. Impact of excess body weight on arterial structure, function and blood pressure in firefighters. Am J Cardiol 2009;104(10):1441-45
24. Soteriades E, Hauser R, Kawachi I, Liarokapis D, Christiani D, Kales S. Obesity and cardiovascular disease risk factors in firefighters: a prospective cohort study. Obes Res 2005;13(10):1756-63
25. Yoo H, Franke W. Prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors in volunteer firefighters. J Occup Environ Med 2009;51(8):958-62
26. Tsismenakis A, Christophi C, Burress J, Kinney A, Kim M, Kales S. The obesity epidemic and future emergency responders. Epidemiology 2009;17(8):1648-50
27. Mokdad A, Ford E, Bowman B, Dietz W, Vinicor F, Bales V, Marks J. Prevalence of obesity, diabetes and obesity related health risk factors. J Am Med Assoc 2003;289(1):76-79
28. Must A, Spadano J, Coakley E, Field A, Colditz G, Dietz W. The disease burden associated with overweight and obesity. J Am Med Assoc 1999;282(16): 1523-29
29. Fahy R, LeBlanc P, Molis J 2007. What’s changed over the past 30 years? National Fire Protection Association [Internet]. http://www.nfpa.org on 07/16/2017.
30. Yang J, Teehan D, Farioli A, Baur DM, Smith D, Kales SN. Sudden cardiac death among firefighters 45 years of age in the United States. Am J of Cardiology 2013;112(12):1962-67
31. Kong PW, Suyama J, Hostler D. A review of risk factors of accidental slips, trips, and falls among firefighters. Safety Science 2013;60:203-09
32. Soteriades E, Hauser R, Kawachi I, Christiani D, Kales S. Obesity and risk of job disability in male firefighters. Occup Med 2008;58:245-50
33. Kuehl K, Kisbu-Sakarya Y, Elliot D, Moe E, DeFrancesco C, MacKinnon D, Lockhart G, Goldberg L, Kuehl H. Body mass index as a predictor of firefighter injury and workers’ compensation claims. J Occup Environ Med 2012;54(5):579-82
34. Poston W, Haddock K, Jahnke S, Jitnarin N, Tuley B, Kales S. The prevalence of overweight, obesity and substandard fitness in a population-based firefighter cohort. J Occup Environ Med 2011;53(3):266-73
35. Brown AL, Wilkinson ML, Poston WSC, Haddok CK, Jahnke SA, Day RS. Adiposity predicts self-reported frequency of poor health days among male firefighters. J Occup Environ Med 2014;56(6):667-72
36. Kales S, Soteriades E, Christoudias S, Tucker S, Nicolaou M, Christiani D. Firefighters’ blood pressure and employment status on hazardous materials teams in Massachusetts: A prospective study. J Occup Environ Med 2002;44(7):669-76
37. Poston W, Jitnarin N, Haddock K, Jahnke S, Tuley C. Obesity and injury-related absenteeism in a population-based firefighter cohort. Obesity 2011;19(10):2076-81
38. Davis S, Jankovitz K, Rein S. Physical fitness and cardiac risk factors of professional firefighters across the career span. Res Q Exercise Sport 2002;73(3):363-70