Abstract
Objectives
To summarize the current research on the occurrence of firefighter exercise and training injuries and to describe the nature of these injuries.
Methods
Scoping review methods were used to identify articles and extract information relevant to firefighter exercise and training injuries. Relevant articles were identified from MEDLINE, Web of Science, CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, and through hand-searching.
Results
A total of 1053 articles were identified, and 23 met the inclusion criteria. Nine studies were retrospective analyses of injury data, 13 studies used surveys to identify injuries in the past year, and 1 study reviewed U.S. firefighter injury reports. Three studies included both career and volunteer firefighters, 2 studies included career firefighters, 2 studies include volunteer firefighters, 1 study include recruits and 16 studies did not specify the career status. The occurrence of exercise and training injuries from 22 of the 23 studies ranged from 8.1 to 55.3% of reported injuries. One study found that 3 out of 15 fire departments identified exercise and training as the most common cause of their firefighter injuries. The 13 articles that reported the type of injuries identified musculoskeletal disorders as the most common type of injury (32% to 79% of reported injuries). The ankle, knee and leg were identified as the most commonly injured areas of the body.
Conclusions
Training injuries are common in firefighters and must be prevented. Future research is needed to identify root causes of training injuries to guide prevention strategies.
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Availability of data and material
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Code availability
The search strategies used to identify articles are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Margaret Lomotan’s assistance during this project.
Funding
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FRN: HPW-146016) supported this work. NJCP was supported by a CIHR Undergraduate Summer Studentship Award (FRN: SIP-164562). JMD was supported by the Dr. James Roth Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Measurement and Knowledge Translation, and a Canada Research Chair in MSK Health Outcomes and Knowledge Translation.
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All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and analysis were performed by NJCP and SCK. The first draft of the was written by NJCP and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Major edits of the manuscript were made by SCK. All the authors approved the final manuscript.
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Carr-Pries, N.J., Killip, S.C. & MacDermid, J.C. Scoping review of the occurrence and characteristics of firefighter exercise and training injuries. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 95, 909–925 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-022-01847-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-022-01847-7