'Early prevention is the most important factor as opposed to trying to fix something once it's already occurred,' lecturer says, adding research could apply to other industries as well
New research from the University of South Australia (UniSA) has found that professional firefighters have reduced movement quality as they age, which in turn could increase their risk of injury.
It found that firefighters over 50 years old generally have lower movement quality than their younger counterparts and could benefit from more strength training to maintain their health.
The research was done together with the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS). Amid a backdrop of Australia’s ageing population and more than 40% of South Australian firefighters over 50, MFS wanted to find ways to better support the health and safety of their workforce throughout their careers.
“There has been some previous research showing that firefighters and other occupational athletes – military personnel, police personnel – those who have lower movement quality in those populations tend to be at a higher risk of injury than those with better movement quality,” Dr Hunter Bennett, lecturer in Exercise and Sports Science at UniSA told HRD Australia.
“And then there's also some evidence in general populations that individuals who are older tend to have lower movement quality than people who are younger. So essentially, we thought, ‘We're interested to know whether that same deterioration in movement quality occurs in firefighter personnel, which could then highlight a potential group that might need intervention’.”
Research on aging and movement quality
This was the first study on the effect of ageing on movement quality in Australian firefighters, according to UniSA.
It looked at the physical activity, movement quality, injury history and body mass index (BMI) of 324 MFS firefighters and found that those over 50 were more likely to have poor movement quality. In addition, those with could be at a higher risk of injury had high BMI, did less than 150 minutes of physical exercise each week and had a musculoskeletal injury in the last 12 months.
The research also highlighted the benefits of functional strength training to improve movement quality.
“The way in which this movement quality is assessed is it’s evaluated doing general movement patterns that are thought to underpin tasks of daily living,” Bennett said. “As an example, some of the assessments are a lunge movement, a squat movement, your ability to hinge through your hips. Each movement is assessed and at the end of the assessment, you get this estimate or measure of your whole body movement quality.”
Bennett added that functional strength training means strength training that targets improvements in particular movement patterns.
“So as an example, if someone's lunge is really poor, then we would encourage someone to do strength training that targets single leg strength and stability as a way to contribute to that improvement in movement quality or that improved ability to perform that lunge movement,” he said.
Being physically active
Bennett acknowledged that the drop in movement quality is mostly driven by a reduction in physical activity.
“As people get older, they generally become less active and then as a result of that, they lose strength, they lose maybe stability, they lose endurance and as a byproduct of that, they lose movement quality,” he said. “So they just don't move as well as what they wanted.”
And he believes leaders in firefighting services should encourage a physically active lifestyle.
“If you can encourage people to maintain physical active lifestyles as opposed to maybe starting up again after a period of inactivity, they'll maintain those qualities a lot better,” he said. “And I think that's probably, like most things, that early prevention is the most important factor as opposed to trying to fix something once it's already occurred.”
Applications across industries
The association between injury risk and movement quality has been observed in other service roles such as the army, Bennett said. And he believes the findings from this research could apply to other industries as well.
“There's probably a few of those occupations where fitness testing and fitness training is probably a little bit more embedded into the job role,” he said. “Whereas that isn't always the case with certain fire service industries. So I think that it would probably be mostly relevant to those that don't have physical training and regular physical testing as part of their organised work.”
While the research findings were published recently, Bennett said the study wrapped up almost 18 months ago. And MSF have since hired two health officers who oversee areas such as physical training and information around injury risk.
“In that regard they have implemented some strategies to promote the health and wellbeing of their fire service personnel through exercise, which is maybe something they weren't doing as directly before,” he said.
What HR teams can do
While some industries may have a good culture around exercise and physical activity, not everyone may go out of their way to maintain a high level of physical activity, Bennett said. So he suggested that HR teams consider encouraging at least some form of physical activity.
“Just like in any other industry, as you get a little bit older and your life priorities start to shift, family demands might increase, maybe work stress increases, all these other things will take up more of your time and it gets a little bit harder,” he said.
“So I think that if there was the scope to not only embed some sort of regular opportunity for exercise into their normal work routine – but make sure that’s encouraged and obviously they get paid for doing it – I think that would be a big step towards encouraging them to maintain those sorts of physical qualities. If this were effective, you would probably anticipate less injuries, less days missed due to injury and possibly sick leave as well. So I feel like it would be a win-win for all involved.”
