Abstract
High job strain, mental stress, sedentary lifestyle, increase in BMI are among the factors associated with significantly higher incidence of hypertension. The job of bank employees is both sedentary in nature and accompanies high mental stress. The aim of this study is to assess the level of knowledge of risk factors among respondents and to compare the blood pressure pattern of bankers and traffic wardens. The study design is a descriptive cross-sectional conducted among bankers and traffic wardens in Ilorin to determine the pattern and knowledge of blood pressure. Self-administered questionnaires, weighing scale (Omron Digital scale), stadiometer and sphygmomanometer were used as the research instruments. Simple random sampling was used to select respondents involved in the study. The prevalence of hypertension in this study was 34.4% in bankers and 22.2% in traffic wardens. The risk factors the bankers commonly had knowledge of are alcohol, obesity, high salt intake, certain drugs, stress, emotional problems and family history while the traffic wardens commonly had knowledge of all these in addition to cigarette smoking. Also, more bankers (32.2%) than traffic wardens (13.3%) were smoking cigarette and more of these cigarette smokers that are bankers (17.8%) had elevated blood pressure compared to the traffic wardens (3.3%). Workers in the banking industry as well as traffic wardens should be better educated about the risk factors of hypertension and bankers should be encouraged to create time for exercise.
Highlights
Hypertension is becoming a public health emergency worldwide especially in developing countries where it is projected that by year 2025, there will be an 80% increase in the number of hypertensive individuals.[1]
This study showed that higher socioeconomic status, level of schooling and age group are important factors affecting the knowledge of risk factors for hypertension
Over 25% of the bankers do not know whether cigarette smoking, alcohol or high salt intake is a risk factor for hypertension and at least 20% of them do not know of obesity being a risk factor while at least 25% of the traffic wardens do not know if cigarette smoking, obesity, family history or sedentary lifestyle is a risk factor for hypertension
Summary
Hypertension is becoming a public health emergency worldwide especially in developing countries where it is projected that by year 2025, there will be an 80% increase in the number of hypertensive individuals.[1] Studies show that the prevalence of hypertension might be associated with job related factors.[2] Jobs with high mental stress and low physical activity as found in banking are a significant risk factor for hypertension.[3] Hypertension is a controllable disease and a small decline of 2mmHg in blood pressure population-wide can prevent 151,000 stroke cases.[3]. The aim of this study is to assess the level of knowledge of risk factors among respondents and to compare the blood pressure pattern of bankers and traffic wardens.
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