Grip Strength and Its Relationship to Police Recruit Task Performance and Injury Risk: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Suitable grip strength is a police occupational requirement. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between grip strength, task performance and injury risk in a police population. Retrospective data of police recruits (n = 169) who had undergone basic recruit training were provided, including handgrip strength results, occupational task performance measures (consisting of police task simulations [SIM], tactical options [TACOPS] and marksmanship assessments) and injury records. Left hand grip strength (41.91 ± 8.29 kg) measures showed a stronger correlation than right hand grip strength (42.15 ± 8.53 kg) with all outcome measures. Recruits whose grip strength scores were lower were significantly more susceptible to failing the TACOPS occupational task assessment than those with greater grip strength scores, with significant (p ≤ 0.003) weak to moderate, positive correlations found between grip strength and TACOPS performance. A significant (p < 0.0001) correlation was found between grip strength, most notably of the left hand, and marksmanship performance, with those performing better in marksmanship having higher grip strength. Left hand grip strength was significantly associated with injury risk (r = −0.181, p = 0.018) but right hand grip strength was not. A positive association exists between handgrip strength and police recruit task performance (notably TACOPS and marksmanship) with recruits who scored poorly on grip strength being at greatest risk of occupational assessment task failure.

The Relationship between Fitness and Marksmanship in Police Officers

“…Grip strength has commonly demonstrated a positive significant relationship with marksmanship in previous research within the law enforcement population [3,22]. Conversely, this study found a significant but negative relationship to shooting performance.…”

“…This study investigated the relationships between different fitness measures and different marksmanship scenarios within a population of police officers. The different marksmanship scenarios were designed to mimic different environments that officers may face while in the field [3,16,20,27]. There were varying relationships between individual fitness measures and marksmanship scenarios, with significant relationships between the shuttle run and static shooting, grip strength and the dynamic scenario, and leg/back strength and the positive identification scenario.…”

“…The fitness measures that were utilised for this study have been commonly used within the literature for this population [3,5,7,[20][21][22]. The following is a detailed description for each of the fitness tests that were performed by the officers.…”

“…A career within the police force encompasses two conflicting occupational physical requirements, one of which involves sedentary, desk-bound administrative work, and the other involving physically demanding, field-based manual tasks [1]. These physical tasks can include running, jumping, crawling, balancing, vaulting, climbing, lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, fighting, dragging and restraining a suspect [2,3]. Additionally, police officers may be required to attend to situations of high risk that threaten the wellbeing of themselves, their colleagues or the general public [4].…”

“…During life threatening situations, a police officer may be required to aim and fire a weapon in the line of duty. Failure to perform this task accurately could result in possible harm to the officer, suspect or the general public [3,16,17]. Firing a weapon with accuracy may need to be performed under the strenuous physical demands officers may face while carrying their duty loads in unpredictable environments, as mentioned previously.…”