Regular practice of physical activity and its relationship with the health conditions of military police officers in a city in northern Brazil

Abstract

The process of globalization with the increase in technology and the growing demand presented by society, has partially modified the service provided by the military police, who are forced to respond faster and more effectively, under penalty of not being able to guarantee quality security service to the population. The objective of this study was to verify the regular practice of physical activity and its relationship with the health conditions of the military police of the general assistance battalions, traffic battalion and internal affairs of the state of Rondônia. This is a cross-sectional study conducted with 96 military police officers from the general assistance, traffic battalion and internal affairs battalions of the state of Rondônia. Anthropometric measurements of body weight, body height, waist circumference were used, after calculating the body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio. For the questions about eating habits and  physical activity, an analog scale elaborated by the researcher himself was adopted: Their daily eating habits are adequate with the following requirements: three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner at breakfast he eats fruits and at lunch vegetables daily, inadequate when he does not meet the requirements. For physical activity, the following question was elaborated: Practice regular physical activity at least 30 minutes twice a week?  Yes or no. The prevalence of non-practice of regular physical activity was 46.9%, males 73.3%, females 26.7%. The associated factors were: being hypertensive in 62.5% (PR=1.34; CI95%: 1.13-1.60), being obese 78.9% (PR=1.44; 95%CI: 1.30-1.60), presence of cardiovascular risk by waist measurement 76.3% (PR=1.67; 95%CI: 1.40-1.98), inadequate eating habits 65.6% (PR=1.66; 95%CI: 1.40-1.97). The findings showed a high prevalence of subjects who self-reported not practicing physical activity regularly, the risk factors were hypertension, obese, high waist circumference and inadequate diet.  Institutional policies to combat the control of arterial hypertension, obesity and the presence of cardiovascular risks, should be invested in the implementation of physical activity programs by qualified professionals, in order to improve the quality of life of these military police officers.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2023.007-032