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Fulltext Support for safety in the fire service: a test of reciprocal causality for safety motivation

Syed-Yahya SNN, Idris MA, Shimazu A

Ind Health, 2023 Dec 06;61(6):419-431.
PMID: 36384861 DOI: 10.2486/indhealth.2022-0064

Much research has identified safety motivation as an essential individual-level antecedent of safety performance. Recently, scholars have shown interest in workplace support as an essential factor of safety motivation. While support from different sources is theoretically distinct, each is argued to be not just an antecedent, but also an outcome of the other. A similar reciprocal relationship is also expected between support and safety motivation. Our research utilised the Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1988) to examine the role of each source of support on safety motivation; and investigate their reciprocal relationships. We used structural equation modelling to analyse three-wave longitudinal data (three months apart) from 314 firefighters throughout Malaysia. The result confirmed direct relationships and interestingly, denied that reciprocal relationships exist between organisational support, social support, and safety motivation over time. Our study recommends that the fire department should encourage support from all sources, primarily from senior management since it is the catalyst that activates support from other sources.

Matched MeSH terms: Firefighters*
Fulltext Biomechanics Analysis of the Firefighters' Thorax Movement on Personal Protective Equipment during Lifting Task Using Inertial Measurement Unit Motion Capture

Yunus MNH, Jaafar MH, Mohamed ASA, Azraai NZ, Amil N, Zein RM

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022 Oct 31;19(21).
PMID: 36361112 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192114232

Back injury is a common musculoskeletal injury reported among firefighters (FFs) due to their nature of work and personal protective equipment (PPE). The nature of the work associated with heavy lifting tasks increases FFs' risk of back injury. This study aimed to assess the biomechanics movement of FFs on personal protective equipment during a lifting task. A set of questionnaires was used to identify the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain experienced by FFs. Inertial measurement unit (IMU) motion capture was used in this study to record the body angle deviation and angular acceleration of FFs' thorax extension. The descriptive analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the FFs' age and body mass index with the FFs' thorax movement during the lifting task with PPE and without PPE. Sixty-three percent of FFs reported lower back pain during work, based on the musculoskeletal pain questionnaire. The biomechanics analysis of thorax angle deviation and angular acceleration has shown that using FFs PPE significantly causes restricted movement and limited mobility for the FFs. As regards human factors, the FFs' age influences the angle deviation while wearing PPE and FFs' BMI influences the angular acceleration without wearing PPE during the lifting activity.

Matched MeSH terms: Firefighters*
Firefighter satisfaction and happiness at work: how big is the effect?

Muthukumaran M, Mohd Nadzrul Safiq AR, Rosnah I, Nor Hisham M, Ashrul Riezal A, Ismail AG

Med J Malaysia, 2023 May;78(3):287-295.
PMID: 37271837

INTRODUCTION: Firefighter satisfaction plays a crucial role in overall workplace happiness. We seek to quantify the effect size of firefighters' satisfaction with happiness at work after adjusting for socio-demographic attributes.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study used data from an online cross-sectional survey that was conducted from 24 June to 24 July 2021 in the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia. Firefighters were approached using the saturation sampling technique. They received online surveys via email through the Director of State and follow-up reminders through the Assistant Director of State Operations. A total of two filter questionnaires were employed i.e. type and duration of service. Firefighters stating that they were volunteer/auxiliary firefighters or had been in service for 2 years or less were excluded. In this study, data from 6041 out of 8581 firefighters were included for further analysis. The survey utilised the validated staff satisfaction index (SSI) and the happy career (HC) scale for in-service firefighters. SSI was a dual-dimension index consisting of welfare and protection against hazards at work, with 16 subdimensions. The HC is a five multi-dimensional items scale. Then, we used multiple linear regression to obtain the coefficient of determination while adjusting for age groups, gender, marital status, job grade, years of service and region of service.
RESULTS: A total of 6041 eligible data points were analysed in the study. The mean (±SD) age was 38.70 (8.97) years, of which 95.9% were male. The firefighters were in service for a median of 14 years (Q1, Q3: 8, 21). The firefighter reported higher life satisfaction (mean [SD] = 78.30 [9.15]) than happiness at work (mean [SD] = 77.22 [0.20]). The mean happiness scores differed significantly between years of service groups (p<0.001), region of service (p<0.001), marital status (p=0.029) and grade (p<0.001). Firefighters' satisfaction contributed 42.7% of workplace happiness (βadj=1.096 [95% CI: 1.064, 1.128]; p<0.001) after adjusting for frontline, married, the central region of service and male gender as control variables.
CONCLUSION: Firefighter satisfaction had a large effect size on happiness at work (42.7%). However, the interpretation of this effect size should be done with caution because happiness at work is inseparable from other life dimensions such as stability in matrimonial relationships and finances, involvement in leisure and religious activities and being mentally healthy.

Matched MeSH terms: Firefighters*
Accident risk indices of Malaysia’s Firefighters working in 12 and 24 hours shift works

Sharifah Osman, Liew Shyuan Yei, Ismail Bahari, Kadir Arifin, Wan Mohd Nor, Chen Teck Foong

Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, 2012;9(2):25-30.
MyJurnal

Work shift has been shown to correlate with accident rates. Understanding of such correlation is pertinent especially among emergency response personnel since the decisions that they make determines not only the outcome of their responses but also the risks of accidents to themselves. A questionnaire data derived study used together with a semi quantitative risk analysis method was adopted to estimate the levels of accident risks between firefighters working on two work shifts. Two hundred and forty eight Malaysia’s Fire and Rescue Department firemen from 24 fire stations working on shifts were selected as respondents. The accident rate among firefighters in year 2006 was 52.8 %. Results showed that the Accident Risk Index (ARI) among firefighters working the 24 hours shift was higher (ARI = 3.14) compared with those in the 12 hours shift (ARI = 2.98). However, there were no significant difference in overall severity of the accidents between the two shifts (p>0.05). The difference in risk levels was attributed to the difference in the likelihood of accident occurrence.

Matched MeSH terms: Firefighters
A cross-sectional evaluation on physical fitness of Malaysian firefighters

Atikah C, Nihayah M, Omar B, Leonard J, Noor Ibrahim M, Zurkarnain M, et al.

Sains Malaysiana, 2015;44:1461-1466.

Fire fighting is one of the most strenuous activities in the hazardous fire service industry. Firefighters have to be physically fit in order to provide an effective and safe fire prevention to the afflicted community and as well as to themselves. The aimed of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the physical fitness among Malaysian firefighters. The hand grip test to evaluate hand and muscular strength was measured using hand dynamometer and one-minute sit ups and one-minute push ups were conducted to measure abdominal muscle endurance. The sit and reach test was carried out to measure lower back and hamstring flexibility. VO2 max was assessed by a 20 meter shuttle run test to measure cardiorespiratory fitness. A total of 385 subjects were participated and the results showed that 77.1% (n=297) and 84.8% (n=325) of them had very poor scores for hand grip strength and VO2 max, respectively. For one-minute sit ups, 40.8% (n=157) of subjects scored excellent. Meanwhile, 32.7% (n=126) subjects scored average for one-minute push ups. For flexibility test, 53.2% (n=205) subjects had poor flexibilty. The results showed there were significantly difference between one-minute sit ups (p<0.001), one-minute push ups (p<0.05), flexibility (p<0.05) and VO2 max (p<0.001) according to age. As a conclusion, this study provides representative data on physical fitness among Malaysian firefighters. These findings suggested the needs to explore the issues behind low physical fitness among Malaysian firefighters and to find ways to improve them.

Matched MeSH terms: Firefighters
Fulltext A Comparative Study of Respiratory Quality of Life among Firefighters, Traffic Police and Other Occupations in Malaysia

Chean KY, Abdulrahman S, Chan MW, Tan KC

Int J Occup Environ Med, 2019 10;10(4):203-215.
PMID: 31586385 DOI: 10.15171/ijoem.2019.1657

BACKGROUND: Despite its excellent psychometric properties, St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) has not been previously used in measuring respiratory quality of life (RQoL) among traffic police and firefighters who are at risk of poor respiratory health by virtue of their occupations.
OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare the RQoL of the occupationally exposed (firefighters and traffic police) and the occupationally unexposed populations in Penang, Malaysia.
METHODS: We recruited male traffic police and firefighters from 5 districts of Penang by convenient sampling during June to September 2018. Participants completed the SGRQ. Scores (symptoms, activity, impacts, total) were derived using a scoring calculator. Higher scores indicate poorer RQoL. Univariate and multivariate linear regression models were fitted to explore the relationship of the independent predictive factors with participants' RQoL.
RESULTS: We recruited 706 participants---211 firefighters, 198 traffic police, and 297 from general population. Smokers had significantly higher scores than non-smokers in all SGRQ domains. Regardless of smoking status, the "occupationally exposed group" had higher symptoms score than the "occupationally unexposed group," who had higher activity and impact scores. Smoking status, comorbidity status and monthly income were significant independent predictors of SGRQ total score.
CONCLUSION: In comparison with the general population, firefighters and traffic police reported poorer RQoL; smoking further deteriorated their respiratory health. There is a need to strengthen preventive health measures against occupational disease and smoking cessation among firefighters and traffic police.

Matched MeSH terms: Firefighters/statistics & numerical data*