Journal
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE
Volume 53, Issue 3, Pages 266-273Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0b013e31820af362
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Funding
- Assistance to Firefighters Grants program [EMW-2007-FP-02571]
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Objective: To examine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in firefighters. Methods: Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and body fat percentage (BF%) were assessed in 478 career and 199 volunteer male firefighters from randomly selected departments. Results: High prevalence rates of overweight + obesity (BMI > 25 kg/m(2)) and obesity (BMI >= 30 kg/m(2)) were found in career (79.5%; 33.5%) and volunteer firefighters (78.4%; 43.2%). False-positive obesity misclassification based on BMI, compared to waist circumference and BF%, was low (9.8% and 2.9%, respectively). False negatives were much higher: 32.9% and 13.0%. Obese firefighters demonstrated unfavorable cardiovascular disease (CVD) profiles. Conclusions: The prevalence of overweight and obesity exceeded that of the US general population. Contrary to common wisdom, obesity was even more prevalent when assessed by BF% than by BMI, and misclassifying muscular firefighters as obese by using BMI occurred infrequently.
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