Physical fitness tests as a requirement for physical performance improvement in officers in the military police of the state of Paraná, Brazil.

INTRODUCTION: Physical fitness is crucial for the work of military police officers. Over time, officers show a substantial decrease in physical fitness. State military officers must undergo a physical fitness test every year, but prior to 2015, failure on this test had no impact on career advancement. State Law No. 18.659/2015 included passage of the physical fitness test as a requirement for promotion for officers in the Paraná military police (Polícia Militar do Paraná). OBJECTIVES: To verify whether the obligation to undergo the physical fitness test had any effects on the physical performance of military police officers. METHODS: The physical fitness tests results from 2016-2019 (n = 1705) were entered into an electronic spreadsheet and stratified by year. The spreadsheet included scores on individual tests (shuttle run, upper body and 12-minute run) as well as the sum total across all tests. Then, descriptive statistics, normality test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and post-hoc comparisons were performed using the Mann-Whitney U test. with a significance level of p < 0.05. RESULTS: Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed on all variables in the physical fitness test when compared between the years of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Mean scores on the shuttle run (96.91 ± 7.54) and upper body tests (82.60 ± 24.81) were highest in 2019, while the mean score on the 12-minute run test was highest in 2017 (60.33 ± 28.38). The effect size of these differences (r) was small. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence suggests that the inclusion of the physical fitness test as a requirement for promotion can contribute to the improvement of physical performance in military police officers.

Validação do questionário de saúde e performance para policiais e bombeiros militares (QSPM) / Validation of health and performance questionnaire for military police and firefighter (QSPM) / Validation of health and performance questionnaire for military police and firefighter (QSPM)

O objetivo deste estudo foi desenvolver e analisar a validade de conteúdo, constructo e a fidedigni-dade de um questionário para avaliar a demanda física e operacional, saúde e condições de trabalho em policiais e bombeiros militares. O Questionário de Saúde e Performance para Militares (QSPM) foi desenvolvido por pesquisadores militares e não militares, a validade foi analisada com o índice de validade de conteúdo (IVC), análise fatorial exploratória e a fidedignidade com o percentual de concordância (%C), coeficiente Kappa e alfa de Cronbach. Nove juízes participaram da validação de conteúdo, 732 militares (15% mulheres) participaram da etapa de validação de constructo e 262 militares (18% mulheres) responderam duas vezes ao QSPM para a verificação da fidedignidade. As análises foram realizadas no software SPSS 26 e o nível de significância mantido em 5%. O QSPM apresentou o IVC de 0,98 e variância total explicada em 54,7%. A reprodutibilidade apresentou valores de %C entre 97,2 - 100,0%, Kappa entre 0,94 - 1,00 (p < 0,05) e alpha de Cronbach entre 0,80 - 1,00 (p < 0,05). Conclui-se que o QSPM apresentou validade de conteúdo, constructo e fidedignidade para avaliar a frequência da demanda física e operacional, as condições de saúde e de trabalho de policiais e bombeiros militares

The aim of this study was to develop and analyze the content and construct validity and reliability of a questionnaire to assess the performance, health and working conditions of police officers and military fire-fighters (QSPM). Civilian and military personnel carried out the development of the QSPM. The validity was analyzed by the content validity index (CVI), factor analysis, and the reproducibility by the simple agreement (%SA), the Kappa coefficient, and Cronbach's alpha. Nine experts participated in the content validation, 732 military personnel (15 women) participated in the construct validation, and 262 military (18% women) answered the QSPM twice to measure reproducibility. The QSPM had a CVI of 0.98. In the exploratory factorial analysis, when considering four factors, and the total explained variance was 54.7%. The reproducibility showed %SA values varying between 97.2 to 100.0%, Kappa values varying between 0.94 to 1.00 (p < 0.05 for all questions) and, Cronbach's α values varying between 0.80 to 1.00 (p < 0.05 for all questions). In conclusion, the QSPM showed content validity, construct validity and reliability to measure the frequency of physical-operational demand, the presence of morbidities, and the working condi-tions of police officers and firefighters