Cargando…

Influence of Wearing Ballistic Vests on Physical Performance of Danish Police Officers: A Cross-Over Study

Purpose: We aimed to investigate the influence of wearing a ballistic vest on physical performance in police officers. Methods: We performed a cross-over study to investigate the influence of wearing a ballistic vest on reaction and response time, lumbar muscle endurance and police vehicle entry and...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Koblauch, Henrik, Zebis, Mette K., Jacobsen, Mikkel H., Haraldsson, Bjarki T., Klinge, Klaus P., Alkjær, Tine, Bencke, Jesper, Andersen, Lars L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7961692/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33807527
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21051795
_version_ 1783665316168990720
author Koblauch, Henrik
Zebis, Mette K.
Jacobsen, Mikkel H.
Haraldsson, Bjarki T.
Klinge, Klaus P.
Alkjær, Tine
Bencke, Jesper
Andersen, Lars L.
author_facet Koblauch, Henrik
Zebis, Mette K.
Jacobsen, Mikkel H.
Haraldsson, Bjarki T.
Klinge, Klaus P.
Alkjær, Tine
Bencke, Jesper
Andersen, Lars L.
author_sort Koblauch, Henrik
collection PubMed
description Purpose: We aimed to investigate the influence of wearing a ballistic vest on physical performance in police officers. Methods: We performed a cross-over study to investigate the influence of wearing a ballistic vest on reaction and response time, lumbar muscle endurance and police vehicle entry and exit times. Reaction and response time was based on a perturbation setup where the officers’ pelvises were fixed and EMG of lumbar and abdominal muscles was recorded. We used a modified Biering–Sørensen test to assess the lumbar muscle endurance and measured duration of entry and exit maneuvers in a variety of standard-issue police cars. Results: There was a significant difference of 24% in the lumbar muscle endurance test (no vest: 151 s vs. vest: 117 s), and the police officers experienced higher physical fatigue after the test when wearing a vest. Furthermore, officers took longer to both enter and exit police cars when wearing a vest (range: 0.24–0.56 s) depending on the model of the vehicle. There were no significant differences in reaction and response times between the test conditions (with/without vest). Discussion and Conclusion: Wearing of a ballistic vest significantly influenced the speed of movement in entry and exit of police cars and lumbar muscle endurance, although it does not seem to affect reaction or response times. The ballistic vest seems to impair performance of tasks that require maximal effort, which calls for better designs of such vests.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7961692
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-79616922021-03-17 Influence of Wearing Ballistic Vests on Physical Performance of Danish Police Officers: A Cross-Over Study Koblauch, Henrik Zebis, Mette K. Jacobsen, Mikkel H. Haraldsson, Bjarki T. Klinge, Klaus P. Alkjær, Tine Bencke, Jesper Andersen, Lars L. Sensors (Basel) Communication Purpose: We aimed to investigate the influence of wearing a ballistic vest on physical performance in police officers. Methods: We performed a cross-over study to investigate the influence of wearing a ballistic vest on reaction and response time, lumbar muscle endurance and police vehicle entry and exit times. Reaction and response time was based on a perturbation setup where the officers’ pelvises were fixed and EMG of lumbar and abdominal muscles was recorded. We used a modified Biering–Sørensen test to assess the lumbar muscle endurance and measured duration of entry and exit maneuvers in a variety of standard-issue police cars. Results: There was a significant difference of 24% in the lumbar muscle endurance test (no vest: 151 s vs. vest: 117 s), and the police officers experienced higher physical fatigue after the test when wearing a vest. Furthermore, officers took longer to both enter and exit police cars when wearing a vest (range: 0.24–0.56 s) depending on the model of the vehicle. There were no significant differences in reaction and response times between the test conditions (with/without vest). Discussion and Conclusion: Wearing of a ballistic vest significantly influenced the speed of movement in entry and exit of police cars and lumbar muscle endurance, although it does not seem to affect reaction or response times. The ballistic vest seems to impair performance of tasks that require maximal effort, which calls for better designs of such vests. MDPI 2021-03-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7961692/ /pubmed/33807527 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21051795 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Communication
Koblauch, Henrik
Zebis, Mette K.
Jacobsen, Mikkel H.
Haraldsson, Bjarki T.
Klinge, Klaus P.
Alkjær, Tine
Bencke, Jesper
Andersen, Lars L.
Influence of Wearing Ballistic Vests on Physical Performance of Danish Police Officers: A Cross-Over Study
title Influence of Wearing Ballistic Vests on Physical Performance of Danish Police Officers: A Cross-Over Study
title_full Influence of Wearing Ballistic Vests on Physical Performance of Danish Police Officers: A Cross-Over Study
title_fullStr Influence of Wearing Ballistic Vests on Physical Performance of Danish Police Officers: A Cross-Over Study
title_full_unstemmed Influence of Wearing Ballistic Vests on Physical Performance of Danish Police Officers: A Cross-Over Study
title_short Influence of Wearing Ballistic Vests on Physical Performance of Danish Police Officers: A Cross-Over Study
title_sort influence of wearing ballistic vests on physical performance of danish police officers: a cross-over study
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7961692/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33807527
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21051795
work_keys_str_mv AT koblauchhenrik influenceofwearingballisticvestsonphysicalperformanceofdanishpoliceofficersacrossoverstudy
AT zebismettek influenceofwearingballisticvestsonphysicalperformanceofdanishpoliceofficersacrossoverstudy
AT jacobsenmikkelh influenceofwearingballisticvestsonphysicalperformanceofdanishpoliceofficersacrossoverstudy
AT haraldssonbjarkit influenceofwearingballisticvestsonphysicalperformanceofdanishpoliceofficersacrossoverstudy
AT klingeklausp influenceofwearingballisticvestsonphysicalperformanceofdanishpoliceofficersacrossoverstudy
AT alkjærtine influenceofwearingballisticvestsonphysicalperformanceofdanishpoliceofficersacrossoverstudy
AT benckejesper influenceofwearingballisticvestsonphysicalperformanceofdanishpoliceofficersacrossoverstudy
AT andersenlarsl influenceofwearingballisticvestsonphysicalperformanceofdanishpoliceofficersacrossoverstudy