If you’re 45 or older and in a sales job, you might be at greater risk for heart disease and stroke compared to workers in management and professional positions. Same goes for individuals that job in office support or service-related jobs.
To much better understand cardiovascular disease risk by profession, CDC researchers conducted a study that included 5,566 employed black and white men and women aged 45 and up. They presented their findings at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology/Lifestyle 2016 meeting, in Phoenix, Arizona, this week.
The researchers examined seven modifiable risk factors that the American Heart Association calls “Life’s Simple 7,” and rated workers in those categories as either “ideal,” “intermediate” or “poor.” The seven factors linked to heart disease and stroke risk included blood pressure, cholesterol, fasting glucose level, physique mass index (BMI), smoking, physical activity, and diet.
Although 88 percent of the study participants were non-smokers and 78 percent had healthy and balanced blood sugar levels, 41 percent of workers didn’t meet “ideal cardiovascular health” as soon as it came to others key measures, including cholesterol, blood pressure, and certain lifestyle factors.
Workers earned top scores if, devoid of the insight of medication, their blood tension readings were lower compared to 120/80 mm Hg, total cholesterol was below 200 mg/dL, and/or blood glucose was lower compared to 100 mg/dL while fasting or 140 devoid of fasting. Being a non-smoker, having a BMI in the normal weight range, and engaging in intense, break-a-sweat activity four or a lot more times a week were additionally given higher marks.
Workers in management and professional roles came out ahead overall, the researchers found. They had much better ideal blood pressures and BMIs, and were a lot more most likely to be non-smokers and physically active.
The researchers reported a wide variation in the cardiovascular risk profiles by profession.
- Transportation and material moving workers: 22 percent smoked — the highest smoking rate among the professions in the study.
- Sales, office and administrative support employees: 68 percent had poor consuming habits.
- Sales employees: 69 percent did not have actually ideal total cholesterol.
- Office and administrative support workers: 82 percent did not have actually ideal scores for physical activity.
- Protective services (police, firefighters, security guards): 90 percent were most likely to be obese or obese, 77 percent did not have actually ideal total cholesterol levels levels, and 35 percent had higher blood pressure.
- Food preparation and serving employees: 79 percent had poor diet quality, the worst score of any group.
- Management and professional workers had overall much better cardiovascular health compared to individuals in others job categories. One-third had ideal physique mass, 75 percent were moderately active, and only 6 percent smoked. Yet lots of had sub-par consuming habits; 72 percent of white-collar business and finance professionals had poor consuming habits.
Workers employed in the broad category of “service” occupations were much less most likely to have actually ideal cholesterol, blood pressure, and physique mass index, said Capt. Leslie MacDonald, lead researcher and senior scientist in the U.S. Public Health Service at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
“This poor cardiovascular risk profile was especially pronounced among protective service workers, which includes security guards, police and firefighters. Healthcare support (service) workers, additionally had a significantly lower prevalence of ideal physique mass index and a significantly greater prevalence of poor diet,” MacDonald said.
Sales, office and administrative support occupations had a higher prevalence of smoking, poor diet, were a lot more sedentary, and had a greater prevalence of poor blood pressure. And older workers employed in transportation and material moving had the highest prevalence of smoking.
“We found that the cardiovascular health profile of middle age and older workers varies significantly by occupation, and these findings were robust to adjustment for income and education,” MacDonald said.
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“job conditions, such as long or irregular job hours, reduced job control, reduced social support, linked in prior research to sub-clinical CVD [cardiovascular disease] and behavioral health, may explain group differences found in our study,” she said.
Targeted health screening and health promotion efforts that take in to account the job pressures and schedules of older workers is called for across professions, she said.
“Clinicians must be aware that occupational exposures to stress, long and irregular job hours, poor air quality and certain chemicals and metals impact risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke, independent of the influence of job on health behaviors,” MacDonald added.
Clinicians can easily play an vital role in screening patients for occupational risks, and spotting barriers to much better cardiovascular health, she said.
Dr. Carl Lavie, medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention and director of the exercise laboratories at John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, in Louisiana, that has actually conducted related research, said, “Ideal cardiovascular health is a lot more common in a lot more affluent and educated [people], and lower in lower socioeconomic and blue collar workers that should be targeted along with much better preventive practices, including lifestyle and medications.”
MacDonald said that the post on job-related risk profiles is useful because “you can’t modification just what you are not aware of, so an vital very first step is taking a cardiovascular risk factor inventory. It is then helpful to evaluate whether the social and environmental conditions of job might be contributing in ways that enhance or reduce health maintenance activities — this includes getting timetable medical evaluations, getting enough quality sleep, opportunities for walking and exercising, access to nutrient-dense dishes and snacks, sustain a healthy and balanced weight, not smoking, and avoiding second-hand smoke.”
She noted that even incremental improvements in these factors can easily insight reduce future cardiovascular disease risk.
Dr. Emile Mohler III, professor of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Vascular Medicine at Penn Medicine, said he’s not surprised by the findings, especially as soon as it comes to smoking.
“Definitely smoking takes at least 10 years or a lot more off your life, and eventually you’re simply going to have actually method a lot more medical troubles if you smoke,” Mohler said.
On the proactive side, he said step-tracking devices can easily be an easy method for workers to boost awareness of their own activity level. Mohler is conducting research on step-monitoring devices and heart health currently.
“You want 10,000 steps a day,” he said.
MacDonald said simple diet changes can easily help, such as adding a lot more fiber-rich and nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables to your diet to insight improve glucose, blood tension and cholesterol, and boost energy levels and mental function.
“We crave simple carbohydrates as soon as fatigued and while under pressure, Yet they do not offer sustainable energy, so reach for whole fruit or celery sticks in place of pastry, chips or candy,” MacDonald said.
“Some actions may produce a bigger impact on cardiovascular health overall,” she added, and having social supports such an exercise partner “can easily be insight sustain brand-new health routines.”
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