Hinton, Ben

Orr, Rob Marc

Steele, Michael

Stierli, Michael

English

Police recruits with lower intermittent metabolic fitness as measured by the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test are at a greater risk of sustaining an injury or illness during police recruit training

Bond University Research Portal

Bond UniversityResearch RepositoryThe 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Assessment as a predictor of injury risk in police recruitsOrr, Rob Marc; Stierli, Michael; Hinton, Ben; Steele, MichaelPublished: 01/01/2013Document Version:Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publication in Bond University research repository.Recommended citation(APA):Orr, R. M., Stierli, M., Hinton, B., & Steele, M. (2013). The 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Assessment as a predictorof injury risk in police recruits. Abstract from Tactical Strength and Conditioning Conference, Melbourne,Australia.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.For more information, or if you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact the Bond University research repositorycoordinator.Download date: 10 May 2019 THE 30-15 INTERMITTENT FITNESS ASSESSMENT AS A PREDICTOR OF INJURY RISK IN POLICE RECRUITS  	1Robin Orr, 2 Michael Stierli 2Ben Hinton and & 1Michael Steele, 1Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia. 2New South Wales Police, New South Wales, Australia Email: rorr@bond.edu.au  BLUF  Police recruits with lower intermittent metabolic fitness as measured by the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test are at a greater risk of sustaining an injury or illness during police recruit training.   INTRODUCTION  Literature suggests that military recruits with poor aerobic fitness are more likely to fail to complete basic military training (1). A tool to measure aerobic fitness, the 20 metre Progressive Shuttle Run Test has been found to predict injury and failure to complete training in military populations (1,2). This assessment is currently employed by the military to identify recruits at risk of sustaining an injury during initial training (1).    While police officers may be required to utilise aerobic endurance on duty, research suggests that the physiological demands on the average police officer may also be anaerobic in nature. Typically, police officers are required to run short distances at maximal effort to ‘get to the problem’, followed by explosive tasks such as take downs, wrestling, pushing and pulling and bending and twisting to ‘control and remove the problem’ (3).    As police recruit training is designed to prepare police officers for operational duties, and therefore includes tasks akin to daily police work, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between intermittent fitness as measured by the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Assessment (IFT) and a recruit’s risk of sustaining an injury during initial training.   METHODS  At commencement of training all police recruits were required to undertake a series of allocated fitness assessments. These assessments were conducted by police Physical Training Instructors (PTI). Initial recruit 30-15 IFT results were used to provide a measure of intermittent metabolic fitness. Recruits then completed a 12-week police training program which included marksmanship training, defensive training and weekly fitness training. Illness/Injury data was captured by the police college injury surveillance system using the standard accident and incident form in accordance with normal police college injury / illness reporting processes.   Statistical Analysis  SPSS Version 20 statistical software package (SPSS Inc., Delaware, USA) was used to conduct an independent sample t-test between cohorts classified by injury/illness status and to undertake a logistic regression to evaluate the relationship between fitness level and injuries/illnesses sustained. Significance was set at p <0.05.   Ethical Approval  Ethical approval for this research was provided by Bond University Human Resources Ethics Committee (BUHREC).  RESULTS  Retrospective data from 219 police recruits who volunteered to participate in the study were analysed. In total, 56 police recruits from this cohort sustained an injury/illness during training. Mean 30-15 IFT scores for injured recruits were significantly (t(247)=7.045, p<0.001) lower (m=15.7 ± 1.13 levels) than mean scores for uninjured recruits (m=16.9 ± 1.71 levels). The logistic regression showed that the 30-15 score was significant in the prediction of recruit injury/illness and equated to: Ln(inj)=7.456-.521x30-15score.  Due to limited data size, the resultant cut off score of 16 levels (15.65 levels), while relatively strong, was limited to a correct classification of 74% of the cohort.   DISCUSSION  The findings of this study are similar to those of previous research that have found lower levels of fitness to be associated with an increase in injury risk to tactical personnel undergoing training. Unlike other research however, this study employed an intermittent metabolic fitness test (30-15 IFT) rather than a continuous metabolic fitness test (20 metre Progressive Shuttle Run Test). While further research is needed to increase the strength of prediction, the 30-15 IFT may be of benefit as a training risk identifier to organisations that train tactical personnel who perform tasks that are intermittent in nature.    REFERENCES  (1) Pope, R.P., Herbert, P., Kirwan, R., Graham, J.D., Bruce, J. (1999) Predicting Attrition in Basic Military Training. Military Medicine.164 (10). pp 710-714. (2) Meigh, N., Steele, M. & Orr, R. M. (2012). Metabolic fitness as a predictor of injury risk in conditioned military trainees undertaking an arduous field training exercise. In N. A. S. Taylor & D. C. Billing (Eds.), Paper presented at the proceedings of the 1st Australian Conference on Physiological and Physical Employment Standards, AUST. (3) Anderson, G.S., Plecas, D.,Segger, T. (2001) Police officer physical ability testing, Re-validating a selection criteria. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategy & Management. 24 (1). pp. 8-31 	

The 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Assessment as a predictor of injury risk in police recruits

https://pure.bond.edu.au/ws/files/27350040/the_30_15_Intermittent_Fitness_Assessment_as_a_predictor_of_injury_risk_in_police_recruits.pdf

The 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Assessment as a predictor of injury risk in police recruits

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Bond University Research Portal