The use of assessment tools in a sample of Croatian professional fire-fighters.

BACKGROUND This article aims at testing of psychometric characteristics of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Defense Style Questionnaire - 40 (DSQ-40) in a sample of Croatian professional fire-fighters, so as to justify their use in Occupational Health. A pioneer effort to interrelate mental states and psychological job demands, ranked using the WAI questionnaire, was made as well. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Upon informed consent, the tools were tested on a sample of 300 members of the operative fire-fighting squad of the City of Zagreb, all men (average age 43; average years of fire-fighting service 18.5). The participation was voluntary and anonymous. RESULTS The average BDI score was 2.34, revealing a low representation of depression in the target population. The score indicating severe depression was seen in 0.7% of examinees only. Cronbach alpha of 0.92 showed satisfactory inner tool consistency. As for DSQ-40, mature, neurotic and immature defence mechanisms were evaluated. The highest mean score of 75.24 (±26.07) was obtained with immature defence (Cronbach alpha 0.87). Self-assessed current working capacity was revealed to be strongly dependent on total years of service (r=-0.134; p=0.021), while the representation of neurotic defence positively correlated with the respondents' age and total years of service. Immature defence strongly positively correlated with the total years of fire-fighting service. CONCLUSIONS The employed tools were shown to be appropriate for use in Croatian professional fire-fighting population. Nevertheless, the interrelations disclosed by this pioneer research should be investigated further.