The influence of age and occupational experience of fire protection workers for chronic non-infectious morbidity

Introduction. The study of the occupational risk of fire protection workers (FPW) is mainly aimed at the hygienic aspects of the work of firefighters, their impact on injuries, primary and general morbidity, as well as stress resistance to emergency situations and the likelihood of the formation of mental and somatic health disorders. At the same time, the associations between the psychological and physical adaptability of firefighters to the working environment, their relationship with morbidity, age, and duration of work in the occupation remain insufficiently studied.

Materials and methods. Seventy 30–61 year FPWs with an occupational experience of 5–38 years were examined. The level of reactive (RA) and personal anxiety (PA) in them was measured on the Spielberger–Khanin scale, adaptive stress (AS) — in accordance with MR 2.2.9.0148–19. The level of chronic non-communicable morbidity (CNCM) was expressed through the indicator of the point prevalence. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, two-sample t-test with different variances, time series analysis, paired and multiple correlation, and regression analysis.

Results. A direct average correlation (0.521–0.648) was established between the variables as follows: age → stage, age → RA, age → PA. Moderate positive correlations (0.349 – 0.425) between the variables: age → CNCM, RA → AS, PA → AS, AS → CNCM. A weak positive relationship (0.167–0.288) was found between the signs: stage → RA, stage → PA, stage → CNCM. A statistically reliable multiple regression model has been constructed describing the influence of independent variables: age, occupational experience, RA and AS on the point prevalence of examined FPWs, with a moderate closeness of the relationship (R = 0.6101) between CNCM and the set of selected predictors.

Limitations. The work did not take into account the behavioural risk factors of CNCM.

Conclusion. The priority factors influencing the point prevalence of CNCM in this cohort of FPWs were age, reactive anxiety, and adaptive stress. A statistically less significant correlation between occupational experience and CNCM could be due to the effect of a healthy employee.

Compliance with ethical standards: the study was conducted on the basis of the informed consent of the interviewed fire protection workers and approved by the local ethics committee of the Saratov Hygiene Medical Research Center “Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies”.

Contribution:
Bezrukova G.A. — the concept and design of the study, statistical processing, writing the text;
Kochetova N.A. — collection of material, statistical processing;
Leskovets E.S. — collection of material.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: August 21, 2023 / Accepted: September 26, 2023 / Published: November 20, 2023