On Thursday, November 21, 2024, the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) at the Universitas Indonesia (UI) held an open doctoral promotion session for candidate Rakhmat Soebekti. During this session, Rakhmat Soebekti defended his dissertation titled “Development of a Fitness for Work Evaluation Program for Firefighters at Company ‘X’ in Qatar.”
The session, which took place in the FPH UI Doctoral Promotion Room, was chaired by Prof. Dr. dr. Sabarinah Prasetyo, M.Sc., with Prof. Dr. Robiana Modjo, S.K.M., M.Kes., serving as the promoter, assisted by Prof. dra. Fatma Lestari, M.Si., Ph.D., as the co-promoter.
Rakhmat’s research aimed to develop a fitness-for-work evaluation guideline for firefighters, with the primary focus on:
- Evaluating the relationship between determining factors and the fitness status of firefighters at Company “X” throughout 2023.
- Analyzing the prediction of the relationship between determining factors and their components to the fitness-for-work status of firefighters at Company “X” in 2023.
- Providing practical recommendations for occupational health physicians in creating evaluation programs that support positive policy changes.
In his presentation, Rakhmat stated that the research successfully developed a fitness-for-work evaluation program for firefighters by integrating determining factors. The study supported the hypothesis that all determining factors contribute to predicting the Fireground Functional Fitness Test (FFFT) as a reflection of fitness status for work, with a predictive strength found to be 0.368 (36.8%—moderate predictive power) based on regression equations.
This result indicates that firefighter fitness evaluations cannot be simplified without using FFFT as the gold standard simulator. Another implication from the findings is that supporting cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) as the highest contributor will strengthen the placement of CRF as a mandatory instrument in the evaluation program.
The recommendations from this research are universal and can be applied to fire departments globally, with adjustments to fit organizational resources through the selection of varied methods and tools.
Rakhmat’s research is expected to make a significant contribution to improving the occupational health and safety of firefighters and to serve as a reference for better workplace health program policies.
Based on the results of his dissertation, Rakhmat Soebekti, who currently works as the Lead Medical Officer for Occupational Health in Qatar, was declared successful with honors, earning the degree of Doctor in Public Health (PH) as the 41st graduate of the 2024 PH doctoral program, the 337th graduate of the Public Health doctoral program, and the 432nd doctoral graduate of FPH UI. (prom)