health & safety firegeezer on 06 Jan 2009 11:23 am
Cardiac Risks of Volunteer FF’s Studied
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.
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One Response to “Cardiac Risks of Volunteer FF’s Studied”
on 06 Jan 2009 at 12:02 pm 1.Glenn Gaines said …
I work with the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program in Washington D. C. One of the services we provide the American fire service includes offering firefighters safety and research grants to academic institutions who are interested in researching how and why firefighters are injured, killed or experience chronic illness in abnormal numbers as compared to the national average. We also fund some research into new technology and its practical use in daily fire operations.
One interesting (preliminary) fact surfaced recently as a result of comprehensive medical evaluations of firefighters who perform real time combat firefighting tasks (advancing hose lines into a structure fire and suppressing the fire). Our grantee found that from blood draws of firefighters who had exited the structure immediately after suppressing the fire had experienced significant blood coagulation. Increases in coagulation could lead to enhancing the danger of heart attack. This of course may lead to a suggestion (that with the consultation of a physician) taking a baby aspirin a day may not be a bad idea (as we have heard in the recent past from medical professionals). All of this is preliminary of course, but, none the less interesting. We will release the final reports on this study in the fall of this year, and submit the findings to CDC for their thoughts on the matter.