O efeito da jornada de trabalho de policiais sobre o comportamento mecânico da coluna vertebral nas funções administrativa e operacional (carro e motocicleta)

Abstract

The nature of the work activity carried out by police officers requires high physical and mental aptitude, staying in the same posture for many hours, combined with the use of heavy personal protective equipment and the vibration of vehicles, may demand exhaustive use of muscle strength, making the activity highly stressful. The objective of the present study was to quantify the effect of the police workday on the mechanical behavior of the spine in administrative and operational conditions (car and motorcycle). 42 males military police officers from the city of Curitiba-PR were evaluated, divided into three groups: Patrol (RPA) (n = 14), Police motorcycle patrol (ROCAM) (n = 14) and Administrative (ADM) (n = 14). Data were collected before (PRE) and after (POST) the 6-hour workday. The variables evaluated were: height variation through stadiometry; strength or peak torque (PT) of the trunk flexor and extensor muscles combined with the maximum voluntary isometric contraction test (MVIC) to quantify the muscle activation level (RMS) and the isometric resistance test (IR) of the flexors and extensors of the trunk. At the end of the workday, Fowler’s position was performed as an acute intervention to assess the ability to recover height. The data were submitted to a standard descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation). For anthropometric variables, loss and recovery (absolute and relative) of height, the ANOVA One-Way Test was applied, for PT and IR the ANOVA Two-Way Test, and for RMS the Kruskal-wallis Test. To identify the statistical differences, the Bonferroni post-hoc, the intra-group differences by the paired T-Test and the correlations tested by Pearson and Sperman. The IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 software was used with p <0.05. The groups had significant height loss (RPA – 4.66mm ± 2.11; ROCAM -6.82mm ± 2.14; ADM -2.8mm ± 1.48), with ROCAM and RPA showing similar losses, but significantly greater than the ADM (p <0.05). Significant reductions were observed in the IR of the trunk flexors in the three groups and in the trunk extensors in the RPA and ROCAM groups and in the PT of the trunk extensors of the ROCAM group AFTER working hours (p <0.05). Twenty (20) minutes in the Fowler position enabled significant height recovery, being the RPA (46%), ROCAM (40%) and ADM (77%). A direct correlation was established between the variable strength (PT) of the trunk extensors and stature loss. The description of these variables may contribute to strategies to reduce overload in the spine, such as the adoption of the Fowler’s position as a recovery posture, in order to enable police officers to suffer less from the overload of vehicles and equipment necessary for the full execution of their activity, as well as the prevention and / or reduction of pathologies related to the spine.