TY - JOUR
T1 - A box lift and place assessment is related to performance of several military manual handling tasks
AU - Carstairs, Greg L.
AU - Ham, Daniel J.
AU - Savage, Robert J.
AU - Best, Stuart A.
AU - Beck, Benjamin
AU - Doyle, Timothy L.A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/3
Y1 - 2016/3
N2 - Soldiers undergo regular physical testing to assess their functional capacity. However, current physical tests, such as push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups, do not necessarily assess job-specific physical capability. This article assesses the utility of generic predictive tests and a task-related predictive test in predicting performance against four job-critical military manual handling tasks. The box lift and place test was found to be the superior predictor in performance of four job tasks; a pack lift and place (R2 = 0.76), artillery gunner loading simulation (R2 = 0.36), bombing up an M1 tank simulation, (R2 = 0.47) and a bridge building simulation (R2 = 0.63). Pull-ups and push-ups were poor predictors of performance in the majority of job tasks. Although the box lift and place had a larger correlation with the artillery gunner loading task than the generic assessment, it only accounted for 36% of the variance, indicating that a task simulation may be more appropriate to assess soldiers’ capacity to perform this job task. These results support the use of a box lift and place rather than generic fitness tests for the evaluation of military manual handling tasks.
AB - Soldiers undergo regular physical testing to assess their functional capacity. However, current physical tests, such as push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups, do not necessarily assess job-specific physical capability. This article assesses the utility of generic predictive tests and a task-related predictive test in predicting performance against four job-critical military manual handling tasks. The box lift and place test was found to be the superior predictor in performance of four job tasks; a pack lift and place (R2 = 0.76), artillery gunner loading simulation (R2 = 0.36), bombing up an M1 tank simulation, (R2 = 0.47) and a bridge building simulation (R2 = 0.63). Pull-ups and push-ups were poor predictors of performance in the majority of job tasks. Although the box lift and place had a larger correlation with the artillery gunner loading task than the generic assessment, it only accounted for 36% of the variance, indicating that a task simulation may be more appropriate to assess soldiers’ capacity to perform this job task. These results support the use of a box lift and place rather than generic fitness tests for the evaluation of military manual handling tasks.
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U2 - 10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00070
DO - 10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00070
M3 - Article
C2 - 26926751
AN - SCOPUS:84978121196
SN - 0026-4075
VL - 181
SP - 258
EP - 264
JO - Military Medicine
JF - Military Medicine
IS - 3
ER -