Assessment of Daily Steps, Physical Activities and Activity Coefficient of Policemen who Do Shift-Work

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to assess the daily steps, physical activities and activity coefficient of policemen (average age 31.5 +/- 5.1 years) who do shift work. Body weight, height and daily steps were measured and one-day activity diary was collected by interviewing with policemen. Average height, body weight, BMI, body fat (%) and muscles (%) of subjects were 173.1 +/- 5.2 cm, 73.7 +/- 9.7 kg, 24,6 kg/m2, 15.5 +/- 1.9% and 37.3 +/- 5.8%, respectively. The average daily numbers of steps were found to be 9,812 steps/day on day shift duty and 10,888 steps/day on night shift duty and 6,551 steps/day on holiday duty. Hourly step rates on day shift, night shift and holiday came to 1946 steps/hr, 2,130 steps/ hr and 1,318 steps/hr, respectively. Activity coefficient (1.75) in night shift of the subjects was the highest and activity coefficient (1.52) in day shift was significantly higher than that (1.31) in holiday (p < 0.05). The rate of expending time for very light activity in holiday (91.5%) was significantly higher than that (70.0%) in night shift. The muscle mass (kg, %) had significantly positive relationship with daily steps in day shift (r = 0.592, r = 0.632) and night shift (r = 0.550, r = 0.503). Triceps skinfold thickness was negatively correlated with daily steps in day shift (r = -0.366, p < 0.05). There were remarkable differences in physical activities and sleeping hours depending on shift works of policemen. In the case of night shift work, sleeping hours was the lowest and activity coefficient was the highest among day shift, night shift and holiday. These results suggest that energy requirements of policemen should be differentiated according to shift work duty.