I__. - International Military Testing Association

The ODCSPER directed that a Physical Requirements
Questionnaire (PRQ) be developed and administered to determine
the extent to which job incumbents were perceived, by themselves
or their supervisors, as having difficulty in performing their
job due to upper body strength limitations. Accordingly, the
U.S. Army Research Institute, in collaboration with the Enlisted
Accessions Division of the ODCSPER and the Exercise Physiology
Division of the Army Research Institute of Environmental
Medicine, developed a 7-item supervisor version and an ll-item
incumbent version of this questionnaire. Only the results from
the incumbent version will be discussed in this paper.
This paper will assess the extent to which insufficient.
upper body strength is perceived to interfere significantly with
job performance in a representative sample of Army jobs. These
self-report data will also be related to MEPSCAT scores, an
objective measure of upper body strength.
Method
Subjects. The total sample size consisted of 11,069 (88%
male, 12% female) job incumbents across 21 Military Occupational
Specialties (MOS). There were 65% white, 27% black, 4% hispanic,
and 4% other in this sample. The mean age for 86% of the males
was 20, and 60% of the females had a mean age of 21. Due to
missing data, the actual sample sizes used in the following
a.lalyses may be somewhat smaller.
Phvsical Requirements Ouestionnaire. The incumbent version
of the PRQ contains 11 items, which consist of 10 multiple choice
and one short answer. This version was pretested in April 1988,
as part of a field test of Project A second tour measures. It
was administered to 79 second tour soldiers (36 to 60 months in
service) in three MOS (13B, cannon crewmember; 88M, motor
transport operator; and 95B, military police). The results of
the pretest indicated that the PRQ was easy to administer, that
the response options were reasonable, and that it could be
completed in less than 10 minutes.
Phvsical Demand Cateqories. The purpose of the physical
demand categories is to assign soldiers to jobs for which they
are physically qualified. The categories are based on upper body
strength. According to AR 611-201, the five categories are: (1)
LIGHT - occasionally lift 20 pounds and frequently lift 10
pounds: (2) MEDIUM - occasionally lift 50 pounds and frequently
lift 25 pounds; (3) MODERATELY HEAVY - occasionally lift 80
pounds and frequently lift 40 pounds; (4) HEAVY - occasionally
lift a maximum of 100 pounds and ,frequently lift 50 pounds; and
(5) VERY HEAVY - occasionally lift over 100 pounds and
frequently lift 50 pounds. As shown in Table 1, the Project A
sample has 14 Very Heavy MOS, 1 Heavy MOS, 4 Moderately Heavy
MOS, 2 Medium MOS, and no Light MOS.
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