Firefighters and police officers have the third highest prevalence of obesity among 41 male occupational groups in the United States (US). However, few studies have examined the relationship of firefighter working conditions and health behaviors with obesity. This paper presents a theoretical framework describing the relationship between working conditions, health behaviors, and obesity in fire...

OBJECTIVE This article reports new anthropometric information of U.S. firefighters for fire apparatus design applications (Study 1) and presents a data method to assist in firefighter anthropometric data usage for research-to-practice propositions (Study 2). BACKGROUND Up-to-date anthropometric information of the U.S. firefighter population is needed for updating ergonomic and safety specific...

PURPOSE To investigate the prevalence of low back pain among Finnish firefighters and to examine whether sleep disturbances predict membership of low back pain trajectories. METHODS In this prospective study, 360 actively working firefighters responded to a questionnaire in 1996, 1999 and 2009. The outcome variables were radiating and local low back pain during the preceding year. Using logis...

A REAL TIME INDOOR NAVIGATION AND MONITORING SYSTEM FOR FIREFIGHTERS AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED MAY 2011 SIDDHESH RAJAN GANDHI, B.E., UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI M.S. E.C.E, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Aura Ganz There has been a widespread growth of technology in almost every facet of day to day life. But there are still important application areas in which technology advance...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes almost half of all on-duty deaths in US firefighters and is an important and costly cause of morbidity. In addition, cancer is a growing health concern in this population. Obesity and obesity-associated, cardiometabolic risk clustering are major, modifiable risk factors for fire service CVD and cancer risk. The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is proven effective...

OBJECTIVES A growing body of literature has documented that job stress is associated with the development of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). However, the association of WMSDs with job stress has not yet been fully studied in Korean male firefighters. The purpose of this study was to determine the status of WMSDs in almost all Korean male firefighters and to clarify the effect of...

wife, Denise and two sons, Harry, age 12, and Gerard, age 10. Brian Fahey leaves us with his wife, Mary and three sons: Brendan, who is 8 years old, and 3-year-old twins, Patrick and James. John Downing is survived by his wife Anne, his daughter Joanne, age 7, and his son Michael, who is 3. My thoughts and prayers are with these families. I am humbled by their devotion to public service. Their ...

BACKGROUND Heart disease causes 45% of the deaths that occur among U.S. firefighters while they are on duty. We examined duty-specific risks of death from coronary heart disease among on-duty U.S. firefighters from 1994 to 2004. METHODS We reviewed summaries provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the deaths of all on-duty firefighters between 1994 and 2004, except for deaths a...