Cardiac Risk Evaluation of Sheriff Deputies at the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and serious illness in the United States. Certain lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, smoking, and stress may have a significant influence on the development and progression of CVD. The purpose of this project is to determine if a workplace wellness initiative (smoking cessation, nutrition counseling, occupational health screening availability of fitness equipment, etc) has had an impact on the health of sheriff deputies at the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office (CSO) by evaluating their Cardiac Risk before (2000-2002) and after (2004-2006) the program using the Framingham Heart calculator. In other studies, participation in fitness and health promotion programs has been shown to be beneficial in increasing fitness and reducing risk factors for CVD. The Principal Investigator will perform a comprehensive chart review on the employees of the CSO by gathering, processing and analyzing cardiac data before and after the wellness initiative. For each patient, six heart related variables (age, LDL/total cholesterol, HDL, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking status) will be entered into the Framingham Cardiac Risk calculator to determine the employees' cardiac risk. Upon completion of the data collection, analysis of this study will be conducted using Microsoft Excel 2003. Following CVD Risk evaluation we will determine if there is a decrease, increase, or no change in cardiac risk. The results obtained from this study may provide information that will change local policies for workplace health initiatives.