How Do Firefighters Differ Between Years of Fire Service Experience: Part 3 – Blood Biomarker Profiles

Firefighters (FF) face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) due to aging, job-related stress, and irregular physical activity. Years of experience (YXP) in the fire service have been shown to have a unique impact on FF health and performance; however, profiling the differences between those with less or more YXP has not yet been assessed. PURPOSE: To examine YXP-related differences in conventional blood cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk biomarkers among firefighters. METHODS: Archival data from annual clinical testing of 142 male firefighters were analyzed (33.4±8.6 years; 29.3±4.1 kg/m2; 38.8±6.9 mL/kg/min). Groups were defined as those with 5 YXP. General linear models (GLM) analyzed YXP's effect on blood CVD biomarkers. Fisher’s LSD tests, 95% confidence intervals, and post-hoc tests assessed pairwise mean differences. Significance was set at p