Does firefighters' physical fitness influence their cardiac parasympathetic reactivation? Analysis with post-exercise heart rate variability and ultra-short-term measures.
Int J Occup Saf Ergon
; 28(1): 153-161, 2022 Mar.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32586212
ABSTRACT
Purpose. This study assessed the influence of firefighters' physical fitness on performances and parasympathetic reactivation in rescue interventions, and tested the validity of post-exercise ultra-short-term heart rate variability. Methods. Twenty-four firefighters were assigned to two groups based on their fitness and performed three simulated interventions. The mean completion time was recorded. The post-exercise root mean square of successive differences of R-R intervals (LnRMSSD) was determined from both criterion (between 5 and 10 min) and ultra-short-term (every 1-min segment from minutes 0-6) analyses. Results. Completion time was better for the highest fitness group in the three simulated interventions while post-exercise LnRMSSD was not influenced by the firefighters' fitness. Reliability between ultra-short-term and criterion analyses differed between the segments tested; minute 5-6 revealed the highest intra-class correlations (0.86-0.97). Concerning sensitivity of both analyses, the criterion analysis revealed differences between the three rescue interventions and the fitness test, but these results were not observed with ultra-short-term measures. Conclusions. Fitness was associated with firefighters' performances but not with parasympathetic reactivation in the firefighting intervention. The ultra-short-term measures do not seem to be a suitable post-exercise LnRMSSD analysis because of the low sensitivity to reveal differences among exercise conditions.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Firefighters
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Language:
En
Journal:
Int J Occup Saf Ergon
Journal subject:
MEDICINA OCUPACIONAL
/
PSICOLOGIA
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: