Cardiovascular risk and stress in employees of a higher education institution

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the association between high levels of stress and the frequency of cardiovascular risk factors in employees of a higher education institution. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study with 201 employees of a university. A form containing socioeconomic data, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (short version), the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and the Work Stress Scale were used for data collection. Data analysis was performed using the probability ratio and One-way analysis of variance tests. Results: worrisome frequencies of cardiovascular risk factors were identified, in which sedentary lifestyle, excess weight, and increased abdominal circumference presented the most expressive indexes. Regarding the stressors evaluated, some of the employees had increased stress indexes, distributed between the medium and high levels. Conclusion: sedentary lifestyle, excess weight, and increased abdominal circumference presented expressive high indexes, without statistically significant associations with the level of stress.

Factors Associated with Cardiovascular Disease Risk among Employees at a Portuguese Higher Education Institution

“…The difficulties in recruiting more workers were simply based on our staffing limitations. However, the sample under study is larger when compared to other studies with a broader focus on health problems in HEIs, as can be observed in the Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Brazil studies (322 participants vs. 233, 124, and 201, respectively) [ 9 , 10 , 73 ].…”