Differences in anthropometric and physical performance measures in law enforcement officers based on age groups

PURPOSE: To identify possible differences in anthropometric and physical performance (PP) measures between different age groups in law enforcement officers (LEO).

METHODS: The cross-sectional study included 769 healthy male LEO (mean age=27.43±3.32 yrs; mean body mass (BM) = 78.42±12.38 kg; mean body height (BH) = 173.33±5.71 cm), divided into three age groups: ≤25 yrs (n=255, mean age = 24.02±0.95 yrs; mean BM=76.97±11.98 kg; mean BH=173.89±5.86 cm); 26-30 yrs (n=355, mean age=27.56±1.44 yrs; mean BM=78.82±11.55 kg; mean BH = 173.37±5.42 cm); and 31-35 yrs (n=159, mean age=32.60±1.37 yrs; mean BM=79.87±14.46 kg, mean BH=172.34±5.86 cm). Collected anthropometric variables included: BM, BH, BMI, Waist Circumference (WC) and Waist to Height Ratio (WHtR). Tested PP related to local muscular endurance (1-minute Push-Up test (PU): 1-minute Sit-Up test: (SU)) and aerobic endurance (2.4 km run test (RU)). Data were collected as a part of preselection process for an Abu Dhabi Police LEO postgraduate course. A one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc adjustment was used for identifying possible changes between age related groups, with significance set at p<0.05 a priori.

RESULTS: When compared to the 26-30 and 31-35 yrs groups, the ≤25 yrs group had a significantly lower BMI (-0.78 kg/m², p=0.038 and -1.38 kg/m², p=0.001), WC (-2.43 cm, p=0.009 and -4.87cm, p>0.001), and WHtR (-0.016, p=0.002 and -0.032, p<0.001 ) while no difference in BM were observed (-1.84 kg, p=0.206 and -2.90 kg, p=0.061). LEO from the 26-30 yrs group differed from the 31-35 yrs group in WC (-2.44 cm, p=0.030) and WHtR (0.017, p=0.006) but not in BM (- 1.05 kg, p=1.00) and BMI (- 0.60 kg/m², p=0.303). PP also shown better results in ≤25 yrs group compared to older LEO groups of 26-30 yrs and 31-35 yrs in PU (3.47 reps, p<0.001 and 5.12 reps, p<0.001), SU (3.36 reps, p<0.001 and 5.11 reps, p<0.001) and RU (-41.69 sec, p<0.001 and -61.47 sec, p<0.001). PP scores of the 26-35 yrs group were not significantly different from the oldest group in PU (1.65 reps, p=0.349), SU (1.75 reps, p=0.088) and RU (-19.78 sec, p=0.359), however from the mean differences in PP scores it may still be viable that the trend of reduced performance was existed in relation to the older age group.

CONCLUSIONS: This study identified significant differences between age groups with negative impacts of age on anthropometric variables, especially with those related to body weight and which correlate to health status (i.e. BMI, WC and WHtR), and all tested physical abilities.