Comparison of health -related physical fitness levels of junior officers in rural and urban fire stations in Ghana

Abstract

The deteriorating health status of the modern day Ghanaian has brought in the concept of health-related physical fit-ness. This concept of health-related physical fitness has been a core component in the training of security services among which is the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS). The focus of this study was to find out whether there would be any significant difference in the health-related physical fitness levels of the rural and urban based junior firemen in Ghana. One hundred (100) junior firemen, fifty (50) each from the urban and rural fire stations were sampled for the study. The Prudential Fitnessgram (2002) battery of tests was used to test the five components of health-related physical fitness of each subject for the study. The scores were analysed and compared using the independent samples t-test of the SPSS windows 12.0 programme, and the HFZ (Health Fitness Zone). The results and findings of the study revealed that, the urban based firemen were fitter in cardio-vascular endurance than the rural group, when sub-hypo- thesis I was tested. There was no significant difference in the muscular endurance levels of the sampled rural and urban firemen, but the urban group were again found to be fitter in muscular strength than the rural based junior firemen when sub-hypothesis 2 and 3 were tested, respectively. For sub-hypotheses 4 and 5, no significant differences were revealed when flexibility and body composition were tested. As a summary, the major hypothesis revealed that the urban based firemen were slightly healthier than their rural counterparts. A lot could be done to im- prove the health-related fitness levels of firemen in the country as a whole.