PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVEL AND SEDENTARY BEHAVIOR OF MILITARY POLICE STAFF

ABSTRACT Introduction: Studies of sedentary behavior in the workplace, where conditions represent a health risk, mainly involving levels of physical activity and health of police officers, have increased in several countries around the world. Objective The objective of this study was to compare the physical activity levels, sedentary behavior and health risks of military police officers involved in overt and specialized patrolling. Methods: A total of 146 military police officers involved in overt and specialized patrolling were assessed, and anthropometric data were collected for body mass - kg; height - m; BMI - kg/ m²; waist-hip ratio (WHR) and fat percentage. Physical activity and inactivity levels were determined using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), short version 8, with statistical analysis (t-Test, Mann-Whitney U test and Chi-squared test, p≤0.05). Results: The mean time of physical activity – overt patrolling (108.33 ± 92.60 min/week) and specialized patrolling (137.11 ± 90.30 min/week) totaled an overall mean of 122.72 ± 91.94 min/week, p≤0.05; and time seated – overt patrolling (391.27 ± 192.90 min/week) had 30.1% of insufficiently active participants, while specialized patrolling was 319.41 ± 123.10 min/week with 17.1% of insufficiently active participants, with a total mean of 312.00 ± 112.30 min/week and 47.3% of insufficiently active participants. Active police officers are one-third less likely to develop health risk than inactive police officers (OR = 0.3, CI = 0.18-0.67). Overt patrol police officers are 3.6 more likely to develop health risk than specialized patrol police officers due to sedentary behavior (OR = 3.6, CI = 1.48-8.75). Conclusion: Both groups of military police officers have lower than recommended physical activity levels and spend most of their time seated. It was also noted that the variables of overt patrol police officers have indicators that are more detrimental to health than specialized patrol officers, yet both occupational groups should be instructed on how to adopt active and healthy lifestyles. Level of evidence II; Prognostic studies-Investigation of the effect of patient characteristics on disease outcome.