Five-year trend of blood pressure among industrial workers in Haryana, India: A record-based analysis

Abstract

Background: The burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) has very swiftly seeped into all the classes of our society. It was a belief, a few decades back, that these diseases cannot affect the labor class or industrial workers. However, this has been proved wrong. Objective: To determine the trend of blood pressure among industrial workers at the same factory recorded between 2018 and 2022. Materials and Methods: A record-based analysis was conducted on the available records of health screening camps conducted at a steel dockyard located in Haryana, India. The blood pressure was measured using standard technique and was used as the outcome variable. Among all the records, data of 18 workers were available for all the five visits. Their trend was presented over the 5-year period. To account for regression to mean and effect of passage of time on blood pressure measurements of the industrial workers, repeated measures linear regression analysis was conducted on 18 observations at five points of time. Results: The prevalence of hypertension was 24.8% in the year 2018, it increased to 25.7% in 2020 and then drastically reduced to 16.8% in 2022. Among the 18 workers who were screened on all five visits, two were known hypertensives and taking treatment. Their mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) demonstrated a rising trend from baseline mean SBP of 126.61 ± 12.50 to 132.89 ± 16.19 mmHg and DBP of 81.72 ± 6.46 to 84.39 ± 12.31 mmHg. The estimated mean blood pressure in the repeated measures model was higher than the original means (although both followed the same trend over time). Although the blood pressure values of the industrial workers depicted a rising trend, the reported prevalence of hypertension was quite low. Therefore, the huge chunk of industrial population being constantly exposed to strenuous working conditions comprise of a highly vulnerable group warranting regular NCD screening and tracking.