A cross-sectional assessment of the individual- and fire department-level factors affecting volunteer firefighter cardiorespiratory fitness.

ABSTRACT: Volunteer firefighters often have lower cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and less access to health monitoring and fitness programs than career firefighters, yet few studies explore how individual and departmental factors influence their CRF. This study assessed associations between CRF and both firefighter-level (e.g., years of service, firefighting calls, and firefighter rank) and department-level (e.g., department characteristics and fitness infrastructure) factors among volunteer firefighters. Surveys were administered to United States volunteer firefighters and departments, capturing CRF and related characteristics. CRF was analyzed as both a continuous and categorical variable (≤8, >8-<10, 10-<12, ≥12 METs) using bivariate analyses and mixed effects linear and logistic regression. Amon

SUBMITTER: Shah NN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12646035 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature