BACKGROUND: Within the context of evaluating individuals' movement
behavior it is generally assumed that the tasks chosen will predict their
competency to perform activities relevant to their occupation.
OBJECTIVE: This study sought to examine whether a battery of
general tasks could be used to predict the movement patterns employed by
firefighters to perform select job-specific skills.
METHODS: Fifty-two firefighters performed a battery of general and
occupation-specific tasks that simulated the demands of firefighting.
Participants' peak lumbar spine and frontal plane knee motion were compared
across tasks.
RESULTS: During 85% of all comparisons, the magnitude of spine
and knee motion was greater during the general movement tasks than observed
during the firefighting skills. Certain features of a worker's movement
behavior may be exhibited across a range of tasks. Therefore, provided that
a movement screen's tasks expose the motions of relevance for the population
being tested, general evaluations could offer valuable insight into workers'
movement competency or facilitate an opportunity to establish an
evidence-informed intervention.
