Jerry can carriage is an effective predictor of stretcher carry performance |
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| Authors: | Benjamin Beck Joanne N Caldwell Odgers Tim L A Doyle Kane J Middleton |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Land Division, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Melbourne, Australia;2. Centre for Human and Applied Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Carrying a casualty on a stretcher is a critical task conducted in a range of occupations. To ensure that personnel have the requisite physical capacity to conduct this task, two bilateral jerry can carries were used to predict individual performance in a four-person stretcher carry. Results demonstrated a bilateral 22-kg jerry can carry (R2 = 0.59) had superior predictive ability of stretcher carry performance than a bilateral 15-kg jerry can carry (R2 = 0.46). Pre- to post-carry changes in grip endurance (p > 0.05), back–leg isometric strength (p > 0.05) and leg power (p > 0.05) were not significantly different between carry tasks. There was no significant difference in heart rate (p > 0.05) and oxygen consumption (p > 0.05) between the stretcher carry and either jerry can carry. Thus, on the basis of performance correlations and physiological measures, the 22-kg jerry can carry is an appropriate predictive assessment of four-person stretcher carriage. Practitioner Summary: This study investigated the ability of a jerry can carry to predict individual performance on a four-person stretcher carry. Performance correlations were substantiated with physiological measures to demonstrate similar physical requirements between task and test. These results can be used to set physical employment standards to assess stretcher carriage. |
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| Keywords: | Physical employment standards job related testing physical performance task-related predictive test |
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