Scientific Study Earns Award from Liberty Mutual Insurance and Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors
HOPKINTON, MA (May 19, 2016) – Researchers from Canada received the 2016 Liberty Mutual Award for their scientific paper entitled, “Can fitness and movement quality prevent back injury in elite task force police officers? A 5-year longitudinal study.” The study aimed to assess links between specific fitness and movement abilities of a police officer cohort with subsequent injury over a period of time. The winning researchers were recognized at the recent Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors Annual Conference Daventry, UK.
The winning researchers include Stuart M. McGill, Ph.D.; David M. Frost, Ph.D.; and Jordan Cannon, M.Sc. of the Spine Biomechanics Laboratories, University of Waterloo; Thomas Lam, B.Phe., D.C., C.K., C.S.C.S., FITS, Toronto, Ontario; and Tim Finlay and Kevin Darby of the Toronto Police Services, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Dr. Stuart M. McGill (left), of the Spine Biomechanics Laboratories, University of Waterloo accepts the 2016 Liberty Mutual Award from Dr. Ian Randle (right), President of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.
For the investigation, 53 elite police force members were recruited and participated for the study duration. “Elite police work has bursts of intense physically demanding work requiring high levels of fitness, or capacity, and movement competency,” says Dr. McGill, lead scientist on the investigation. “These factors are assumed to increase one's injury resilience. We wanted to test whether or not we could predict back injuries from measures of fitness and movement quality.”
Researchers gathered baseline measurements from every officer including torso endurance, relative and absolute strength, hip range of motion and movement quality using several dynamic movement tests and the Functional Movement ScreenTM. Over the 5-year follow-up period, 14 of the 53 participants sustained a back injury.
The study findings reveal complexities in the interactions between exposure, movement competency, training, fitness and injury. “When variables were grouped and considered holistically, rather than individually, back injury could be predicted,” says McGill. “We found seven variables that best predicted those who would suffer a back injury; however, overall the ability to predict back injury was not high. Generally, it was the fitter officers who were injured, which suggests that training intensity may have been a factor.”
“Although the study raises as many questions as it answers, it demonstrates the complexities between exposure, fitness, injury and injury prediction.” says Roger Haslam, editor-in-chief of Ergonomics. “The editors recognized the paper for rising to the methodological and practical challenges of undertaking prospective research in a real world setting,”
The winning paper, published in Ergonomics (58:10, 1682-1689), is available through Taylor & Francis Group.
The Best Paper Award promotes excellence in safety and health research. Established in 2005 by the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety and the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, the award recognizes the paper published in the journal Ergonomics that best contributes to the advancement of ergonomics. The editors of Ergonomics select the winner from all of the papers published in the journal in a given year.
About Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety
Owned and operated by Liberty Mutual Insurance, the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety (www.libertymutualgroup.com/research) is an award-winning research facility that has helped improve safety and disability outcomes for businesses and individuals for more than 60 years. Its mission is to conduct innovative scientific research to help reduce injuries and disability at home, at work, in the community, and on the road. Research findings, published in the open, peer reviewed literature, are shared with the worldwide health and safety community and are used to develop recommendations, guidelines, and interventions.
About Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors
The Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (www.ergonomics.org.uk), founded in 1949, is the professional body for researchers and practitioners in the field of ergonomics, with an international membership in excess of 1,800. Its aim is to promote the awareness, education and application of ergonomics in industry, commerce, public sector and government.
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