Objective
To detect the positive rates of high-normal blood pressure and hypertension in male steel workers, and assess the effects of occupational exposures to noise, high temperature, and shift work on prevalence of high-normal blood pressure and hypertension.
Methods
Male workers of an iron and steel group in Tangshan, who attended occupational health physical examination in September 2015-July 2016, completed questionnaires and received physical measurements. The relationships of exposures to noise, high temperature, and shift work with prevalence of high-normal blood pressure and hypertension were assessed using multinomial lo gistic regression models.
Results
A total of 7 587 male steel workers were enrolled in the study. The positive rates of high-normal blood pressure and hypertension were 42.9% and 32.8%, respectively. The distribution of blood pressure was different in the male steel workers with exposures to noise, high temperature, and shift work (P < 0.001). After adjusted for age, seniority, ethnic group, marital status, educational level, family monthly income per capita, body mass index, hypertension family history, smoking, drinking, salt consumption, and physical exercise, the multinomial logistic regression analysis results showed that with the male steel workers without exposures to noise, high temperature, and shift work as reference, the OR values (95%CI) of high-normal blood pressure of those with current exposures were 1.27 (1.12-1.44), 1.22 (1.07-1.39), and 1.20 (1.03-1.40), respectively; the OR values (95%CI) of hypertension of those with current exposures were 1.29 (1.12-1.49), 1.34 (1.16-1.56), and 1.28 (1.08-1.53), respectively. The OR values (95%CI) of high-normal blood pressure and hypertension were 1.26 (1.03-1.55) and 1.36 (1.09-1.71) for those with former exposure to shift work versus those without, respectively; the OR value (95%CI) of hypertension was 1.87 (1.37-2.56) for those with former exposure to high temperature versus those without; the OR value (95%CI) of high-normal blood pressure was 1.56 (1.11-2.20) for those with former exposure to noise versus those without.
Conclusion
The male steel workers exposed to noise, high temperature, and shift work may have higher risks of normal highnormal blood pressure and hypertension than those not exposed to these factors.
DownLoad: