Schram, B.; Orr, R.; Pope, R.; Hinton, B.; Norris, G. Comparing the Effects of Different Body Armor Systems on the Occupational Performance of Police Officers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2018, 15, 893.
Schram, B.; Orr, R.; Pope, R.; Hinton, B.; Norris, G. Comparing the Effects of Different Body Armor Systems on the Occupational Performance of Police Officers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 893.
Schram, B.; Orr, R.; Pope, R.; Hinton, B.; Norris, G. Comparing the Effects of Different Body Armor Systems on the Occupational Performance of Police Officers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2018, 15, 893.
Schram, B.; Orr, R.; Pope, R.; Hinton, B.; Norris, G. Comparing the Effects of Different Body Armor Systems on the Occupational Performance of Police Officers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 893.
Abstract
Policing duties may inherently be dangerous due to stab, blunt trauma and ballistic threats. The addition of individual light armour vests (ILAVs) has been suggested as a means to protect officers. However, the addition of the extra load of the ILAV may affect officer ability to conduct occupational tasks. The purpose of this study was to determine if wearing any of 3 different ILAVs (ILAV A, ILAV B, & ILAV C) affected occupational task performance when compared to that in normal station wear. A prospective, within-subjects repeated measures design was employed, using a counterbalanced randomization in which each ILAV was worn for an entire day while officers completed a variety of occupationally relevant tasks. These tasks included a victim drag, car exit and 5 meter sprint, step down and marksmanship task. Results showed that performance in each task did not vary between any of the ILAV or normal station wear conditions. There was less variability in the marksmanship task with ILAV B, however. The results suggest that none of the ILAVs used in this study were heavy enough to significantly affect task performance in the assessed tasks when compared to wearing normal station wear.
Keywords
light armour; personal protective equipment; load; law enforcement; occupational tasks
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Public, Environmental and Occupational Health
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
