Health, Safety, and Readiness of Tactical Populations

Dear Colleagues,

Tactical populations include first responders (firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMS personnel, etc.) and military personnel that have committed to protect life and property. Many of these occupations require the performance of arduous physical tasks in austere environments. As such, musculoskeletal injuries, psychological (e.g., PTSD) and physical morbidities (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity), and decreased physical fitness occur across the career span. We are pleased to invite you to provide researchers, administrators, and practitioners with empirical research to elucidate these occupational threats, identify risk factors and mechanisms associated with their occurrence, and provide evidence-based practices to address them in tactical populations. 

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research aims and study designs on tactical populations may include (but not limited to) the following:

• Elucidate and evaluate critical (mental and physical) health, injury, and performance issues confronting tactical populations;
• Quantitative and qualitative investigations to identify risk factors and mechanisms of injuries;
• Longitudinal assessments of interventions to enhance health, injury, fitness and occupational performance outcomes to develop evidence-based practices;
• Cross-sectional designs to evaluate the role of physical fitness and occupational readiness in health and injury outcomes;
• Validation research to develop relevant assessments of occupational physical ability and technologies to support operator readiness in recruit and incumbent populations and to guide return to duty post-injury;
• Evaluate the impact of allostatic load (physical and psychological stressors) on occupational readiness, health, and injury outcomes.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Nicholas R. Heebner
Dr. Emily Lynn Langford
Prof. Dr. Mark Abel
Guest Editors

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