Physical activity of Police Officers during police service

Abstract

Modern police work has become increasingly sedentary due to technological advancements and administrative tasks, interspersed with occasional intense physical activity, and this study aims to assess Police officers (PO) usual PAL during police service. This is a cross-sectional study in which 32 PO (age 26.91±3.66 years) belonging to COMETLIS/PSP participated. ActiGraph model GT3X accelerometers were used to assess PA during police service, and the physical activity level (PAL) classification included the categories: sedentary, light, moderate, vigorous, and moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA). A total of 2584 hours of police activity were considered, corresponding to 323 8-hour shifts, of which 136 were morning shifts, 125 were afternoon shifts, and 62 were night shifts. It was observed that the time spent on sedentary (54.44%), light (15.57%), moderate (8.42%), vigorous (0.83%), and MVPA (9.25%) while performing police work underwent statistically significant differences. The day of the week, the shift of duty and the time of day had a statistically significant effect on the time spent on sedentary, light, moderate, vigorous and MVPA of police officers in the performance of police duty. Police work is primarily sedentary, with moderate to vigorous PA peaks corresponding to more demanding events. It seems relevant to counteract the excessive sedentary time associated with patrolling for professional and health reasons, as well as for quality of life, and to ensure the ability to act in an emergency scenario to resolve it because even though it represents a small percentage of working time, they are often linked to life-threatening situations.