Level of active break practices among fire department personnel, Santo Domingo, 2024

Abstract

Active breaks are short periods of physical activities that are carried out during work days, to reduce the negative effects of work. Carrying out these activities does not require stopping activities in the company, it is enough to take a few minutes every two hours for the worker to do the various types of exercises. This research aims to measure the level of active practices in the personnel of the Santo Domingo Fire Department, 2024. Methodologically, it was developed under the quantitative approach as a descriptive level field research, with a basic purpose and with a non-experimental cross-sectional design. The sample consisted of 95 active workers of the fire department to whom a questionnaire was applied that, through a scale, allowed measuring the level of active breaks. As main results, the majority of firefighters are between 18 and 30 years old (48.4%), with a predominance of the male gender (57.9%) and working mainly in the operational area (58.9%). 13.7% take active breaks regularly, while 83.2% do so occasionally, indicating an urgent need to promote these breaks. Although 80% take short breaks occasionally, only 21.1% perform stretching exercises regularly. Overall, 61.05% of staff have an adequate level of active breaks in their work routine, while 38.94% maintain a moderate level of these practices, highlighting the importance of institutionalizing these practices to improve health, reduce stress and increase effectiveness in fulfilling their responsibilities.