Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors among Group C Employees in a Tertiary Health Care Centre in Puducherry: A Cross-sectional Study

Copyright © 2020 Phcog.Net. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Cite this article : Kumar S, Kar SS. Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors among Group C Employees in a Tertiary Health Care Centre in Puducherry: A Cross-sectional Study. Int J Med Public Health. 2020;10(4):147-51. ABSTRACT Background: Settings based approach for health promotion at workplaces is surveillance of employees for CVD risk factors, which will help to estimate the prevalence of CVD risk factors and monitor CVD risks among the employees. It was planned to calculate the prevalence of CVD risk factors among group C employees of tertiary care hospital in south India. Materials and Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 324 group C employees aged ≥18 years as per the WHO “STEP wise approach to surveillance of non-communicable diseases” (STEPS) methodology. Standardized international protocols were used to measure behavioural risk characteristics (smoking, alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity) and physical characteristics (weight, waist circumference, height and blood pressure). Multivariate analysis was done to know the factors, which carry independent risk of hypertension. Risk factor profiling of the employees was done using WHO/ISH risk prediction chart to estimate the 10 year risk of a fatal or nonfatal major cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction or stroke), according to age, gender, blood pressure, smoking status and presence or absence of self-reported status of diabetes mellitus. Data entry was done using Epi-data version 4.4.2.1. Data cleaning and analysis was done using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: Mean age in years was 34.3 (±8.26) and men contributed 79.3% of study participants. Prevalence of major cardiovascular risk factors was as follows: Current smokers 25.3% men, regular alcohol intake 29.01% between men, overweight (≥23 kg/m2) 26.4%, central obesity 16%, hypertension 13.7% and a past history of diabetes mellitus 15.6%. Almost 3/4th of the participants were following unhealthy diet and living sedentary life style. The relationship between sociodemographic factors and selected risk factors of CVD (tobacco use, alcohol use, unhealthy diet and physical activity) was found significant associated with gender, age, educational status and years of work experience. Around four percent participants had a >10% risk of developing CVD in next 10 years. Conclusion: The prevalence of CVD risk factors is high in the sample population. Employee health and wellness program must be regulated and implemented in the institute, to overcome the burden of cardiovascular diseases.