Cardiorespiratory fitness is a risk factor for lower-limb and back injury in law enforcement officers commencing their basic training: a prospective cohort study

ABSTRACT

We aimed to report the epidemiology of lower-limb and lumbosacral injuries in Police Force recruits. We performed a cohort study of Police Force recruits undergoing a six-month training program with prospective injury data collected between 2018 and 2021. Cardiorespiratory fitness was quantified by the beep-test and police-specific-functional-capacity was quantified using a specifically designed physical performance evaluation (PPE) tool. Injury frequency and prevalence were reported. Fifteen percent (n = 180) of study Police Force recruits (n = 1,181) sustained a lower-limb or lumbosacral injury. The six-month training program significantly improved cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.001) and functional capacity (p < 0.001). Increased cardiorespiratory fitness at baseline decreased injury risk (OR = 0.8, 95%CI: 0.66–0.97, p = 0.019). Injury rates decreased over time and females were injured significantly earlier than males (HR = 0.70, 95%CI: 0.52 to 0.95, p = 0.021). Interventions that can pre-condition Police Force recruits prior to the commencement of their basic physical training may reduce the number of lower-limb and lumbosacral injuries.

KEYWORDS:

• Injury
• police
• prevention
• epidemiology

Disclosure statement

Mr Garth Allen is an employee of the Western Australian Police Force, however Mr Allen acted as the industry/ consumer stakeholder and whilst he contributed to the study design and manuscript preparation, he had not role in data analysis. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the remaining author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Edith Cowan University Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute [G1006008]; Western Australian Police Force [G1006008]; Western Australian Defence Science Centre on behalf of the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation [G1005141]