Measurement of functional capacity requirements to aid in development of an occupation-specific rehabilitation training program to help firefighters with cardiac disease safely return to work.
We designed a study to measure the functional capacity requirements of firefighters to aid in the development of an occupation-specific training program in cardiac rehabilitation; 23 healthy male firefighters with no history of heart disease completed a fire and rescue obstacle course that simulated 7 common firefighting tasks. They wore complete personal protective equipment and portable metabolic instruments that included a data collection mask. We monitored each subject's oxygen consumption (VO(2)) and working heart rate, then calculated age-predicted maximum heart rates (220 - age) and training target heart rates (85% of age-predicted maximum heart rate). During performance of the obstacle course, the subjects' mean working heart rates and peak heart rates were higher than the calculated training target heart rates (t(22) = 5.69 [working vs target, p <0.001] and t(22) = 15.14 [peak vs target, p <0.001]). These findings, with mean results for peak VO(2) (3,447 ml/min) and metabolic equivalents (11.9 METs), show that our subjects' functional capacity greatly exceeded that typically attained by patients in traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs (5 to 8 METs). In conclusion, our results indicate the need for intense, occupation-specific cardiac rehabilitation training that will help firefighters safely return to work after a cardiac event.
Adams
Jenny
J
Cardiac Rehabilitation Department, Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital, Dallas, TX, USA. jennya@baylorhealth.edu
Roberts
Joanne
J
Simms
Kay
K
Cheng
Dunlei
D
Hartman
Julie
J
Bartlett
Charles
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005080:Exercise Test; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005390:Fires; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D055815:Young Adult