Association of dyslipidemia, hypertension and overweight/obesity with work shift and duration of employment among police officers in a small town in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

| Background: Metabolic syndrome and chronic diseases have impact on the job performance of police officers. Objective: To investigate the association of overweight/obesity and cardiovascular risk factors with work shift and duration of employment among police officers. Methods: Cross-sectional study with 102 police officers in Cajazeiras, Paraíba, Brazil, in which we analyzed sociodemographic data, occupational characteristics, body mass index (BMI), lipid profile, personal history of disease and lifestyle. Statistical analysis included the chi-square and Fisher’s exact test. Results: Overweight/obesity was found among most participants (83.3%). Hypertriglyceridemia (49.1%), low HDL-C (56.9%) and high LDL-C (46.1%) levels were associated with abnormal BMI (p<0.05). Hypertension was the main disease reported by overweight/obese participants (28.2%) (p=0.01). Job position, lifestyle and work shift were not associated with any of the analyzed variables, however, abnormal BMI, dyslipidemia, and hypertension were frequent among the participants with 6-10 or more than 10 years in the job (p<0.05). Conclusion: Part of the participants with at least 6 years in the job exhibited overweight/obesity in association with dyslipidemia and hypertension. We recommend prevention and therapeutic strategies to protect officers from chronic diseases or attenuate their long-term complications. Additional prospective studies are needed to confirm the associations we found, mainly between duration of employment and occupational diseases.

Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Colombian Penitentiary Staff: An Interdisciplinary View of a High-Risk Occupation

“…Comparing these data with previous studies, it is possible to observe that these values could be related to other factors such as diet, working conditions, or environment, which could be observed in a study carried out with police officers in Brazil. They found a prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia (49.1%), low levels of HDL cholesterol (56.9%), and elevated LDL (46.1%), all of them related to BMI ( p < .05) (da-Silva et al, 2019). There was a relationship between BMI and lower levels of HDL ( p = .034) and higher levels of LDL ( p = .031) and triglycerides ( p = .015).…”

“…There was a relationship between BMI and lower levels of HDL ( p = .034) and higher levels of LDL ( p = .031) and triglycerides ( p = .015). Also, a higher proportion of hypertension was observed in people with overweight and obesity (da-Silva et al, 2019).…”

“…Military staff have very strict conditions during the selection process on fitness, weight, and size standards (da-Silva et al, 2019), and permanent training routines must prevent overweight and reduce lipid alterations; however, Pasiakos found a prevalence higher than 10% for obesity, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia in militaries. Another study with more than 500 soldiers showed that 69% of them were obese, 70% have high levels of low density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol, 50% low levels of HDL cholesterol, and 20% high levels of triglycerides (Hruby et al, 2017).…”

Diffusion of scientific concepts on obesity in the global context: a historical review

“…A limitation of the study was its anchoring in a single electronic database. However, it is noteworthy that PubMed ® comprises more than 30 million citations of biomedical literature, involving a wide network of journals in the field of biological sciences, life and health, including Brazilian journals indexed in other databases as well [4,5,[14][15][16][17][18][19]. Therefore, a potential bias in the selection of articles on the scientific concepts of obesity could have occurred, since this search tool presents greater identification and proximity to the biomedical paradigm [2].…”

“…In the academic field, within the global context, including in Brazil, the diffusion of this biomedical concept based on BMI values has generated the use of several concepts related to obesity, such as the concepts of "overweight", "overweight/obesity", "overweight including obesity" and "excess weight" [4,5,7,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. The use of these concepts does not always occur properly and in accordance with the normative procedures recommended by WHO which raises the need for debate and reflection [1].…”