Establishing Reference Data for Fitness Assessment of Law Enforcement Officers Using a Qualitative Systematic Review

Luís Miguel Massuça; Vanessa Santos; Luís Monteiro

doi:10.3390/healthcare11091253

Establishing Reference Data for Fitness Assessment of Law Enforcement Officers Using a Qualitative Systematic Review

Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Apr 27;11(9):1253. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11091253.

Authors

Luís Miguel Massuça^{1

2

3

4}, Vanessa Santos^{4

5

6}, Luís Monteiro^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ ICPOL Research Centre, Higher Institute of Police Sciences and Internal Security, 1300-352 Lisbon, Portugal.
² CIDEFES, Universidade Lusófona, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal.
³ CIFI2D, Faculty of Sport, Universidade do Porto, 4200-450 Porto, Portugal.
⁴ First Responder Research Laboratory, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
⁵ Exercise and Health Laboratory, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, 1495-751 Cruz Quebrada, Portugal.
⁶ KinesioLab, Research Unit in Human Movement Analysis, Instituto Piaget, 2805-059 Almada, Portugal.

Abstract

Physical fitness tests are a standard means of evaluating the competence of police officers. This qualitative review aims (i) to document, compare, and examine the reference values available in the current literature regarding fitness tests for Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), and (ii) to define reference values for the most used fitness tests to assess and predict police officer performance. A total of 1879 records were collected for review from two major literature databases, PubMed and ScienceDirect. After applying our exclusion criteria, a total of 19 studies were considered. All studies demonstrated acceptable methodological quality in fitness assessment, and the most used components were muscle strength, muscular endurance, muscle power, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, flexibility, and agility. This review provides (i) a methodological definition for the physical fitness assessment that helps select the most used fitness tests, (ii) a standardised methodology for establishing reference data for fitness tests appropriate for LEOs; and (iii) aggregate reference values for selected fitness tests. This may improve selection and retention procedures, considering that this group performs its duties in an environment and under conditions that differ from those of other occupational groups. Complementarily, this qualitative review also provides a foundation for developing effective interventions to improve each aspect of fitness testing for police officers.

Keywords: law enforcement; normative values for fitness; physical fitness; police officers.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology—FCT, grant number UIDP/04915/2020 and UIDB/04915/2020 (ICPOL Research Center —Higher Institute of Police Sciences and Internal Security (ISCPSI)—R&D Unit).