Low physical activity levels of military police officers during day and night radio patrolling.

Introduction: The São Paulo State Military Police officers have a higher mortality rate than the civilian population. The radio patrolling work (RP190) is carried out by pairs of military police officers (MPOs) for 12 hours, using a police vehicle, requiring physical capabilities at any moment. However, whether the activity performed by MPOs during operational work is within the sedentary or the physically active range classification requires investigation. This cross-sectional study measured and compared the number of steps performed by MPOs during night and day shift radio patrolling.

Methods: The study participants included 170 MPOs with a median age of 35.0 (IQR: 29.0-43.0) years. All volunteers worked either the day (n=117) or night (n=53) shift and underwent step count analysis during the service shift using a Yamax pedometer (Digi-Walker SW 700, Tokyo, Japan). The data were normalised for pedometer wear time corresponding to the working service period. The MPOs in the radio patrolling programme wore the pedometer for 8.5 hours.

Results: The results show that they took an average of 2516 (95% CI 2270 to 2632) and 295.8 (95% CI 278.1 to 313.5) steps during the whole service and per hour of service, respectively. No difference in the number of steps was observed during the day compared with the night shift (2574 (IQR: 1829-3371) vs 2485 (IQR: 1502-2821), p=0.131). However, when normalised for wear time of use, the number of steps was significantly higher in the day compared with the night group (311.7±119.1 vs 260.6±108.6, p=0.009, d=0.44).

Conclusions: In conclusion, MPOs working the night shift are less physically active than MPOs working the day shift. Furthermore, MPOs' activity can be classified into the sedentary range independently of their shifts.