Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Some Occupational Categories and Its Preventive Implications

Background and Objective: Cardiovascular diseases present an increasing trend of morbidity and mortality in middle- and low-income countries especially among the productive sector of population with their known economic burden. The aim of this work was to identify the profile of cardiovascular risk factors in such communities among some occupational categories. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in two of the public sector enterprises in Alexandria, Egypt. Male workers (n = 382) were included in the study. They were classified according to their occupational category into managerials (n = 147), executives (n = 119), and auxiliaries (n = 116). All participants were investigated for the different conventional coronary risk factors as well as the job stressors. Results showed that smoking, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia are the most common conventional coronary risk factors with significant differential distribution by the occupational category (p = 0.048, 0.008 & 0.001 respectively). Smoking was more prevalent among lower occupational categories; meanwhile, other risk factors were more prevalent among higher occupational categories than among other categories. Multiple regression analyses revealed significant effect for perceived strain of responsibility at work on systolic blood pressure and serum cholesterol even after adjustment for confounders (p = 0.01 & 0.02 respectively). Conclusion: It seems that occupational category as well as job stressors especially the perceived stress of responsibility at work are important factors in determining the cardiovascular risk profile in such communities. Control of modifiable risk factors should be considered in occupational health services to achieve the goal of healthy communities.