Prospective Cohort Study to Elucidate the Correlation between Occupational Stress and Hypertension Risk in Oil Workers from Kelamayi City in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China.

Rong Li,Hua Ge,Bo Liu,Jiwen Liu,Junling Zhao,Xiaoyan Gao,Li Ning

doi:10.3390/ijerph14010001

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the major risk factors for hypertension in oil workers, and investigate the effect of occupational stress on the incidence of hypertension after controlling for other risk factors. A prospective cohort approach was used following enrollment of 1354 oil workers. The occupational stress experienced by oil workers was higher than for the general population in China. By the end of the cohort study, 231 new cases of hypertension among the oil workers had been diagnosed. The cumulative incidence of hypertension was 17.06%. There were 44, 112, and 75 workers who developed hypertension in the low, intermediate, and high occupational stress groups, which represented a 12.0%, 15.6%, and 20.3% cumulative incidence, respectively (chi-square value = 9.812, p < 0.01). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard model analysis showed that type of work, cigarette smoking, excess body weight, and obesity were risk factors for hypertension (p < 0.05). After risk factors such as type of work, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and body mass index (BMI) were controlled, the hypertension risk (hazard ratio, HR) in the high occupational stress group was 1.549 (1.072–2.236) compared to the low exposure group, and 2.337 (1.191–4.585) in female subjects. Our study indicated that an increase in occupational stress was associated with an increased risk of hypertension after other factors were adjusted.

Highlights

Hypertension is a major global health issue due to its magnitude and associated risks, difficulty of control, high medical and social costs, and the fact that it causes severe cardiovascular and renal complications [1]
The results suggested that gender, number of years worked, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and body mass index (BMI) might be associated with hypertension in oil workers
We identified that the occupational stress of oil workers was higher than the Chinese general population [25], with a total of 231 subjects developing hypertension during the study period, representing a 17.06% cumulative incidence

Summary

Introduction

Hypertension is a major global health issue due to its magnitude and associated risks, difficulty of control, high medical and social costs, and the fact that it causes severe cardiovascular and renal complications [1]. In 2010, hypertension caused 9.4 million deaths and led to the loss of 7%. It has been proposed that non-communicable cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) will be the global leading cause of death and disability by 2020 [3], and the number of hypertensive adults will reach 1.5 billion (approximately 30% of the world population) by 2025 [4]. In addition to known risk factors for hypertension, such as prior family history, obesity, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and a high intake of sodium [5]; multiple factors, including age, gender, blood glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, high-density and low-density lipoprotein levels, are closely correlated with the incidence of hypertension [6,7]. Public Health 2017, 14, 1; doi:10.3390/ijerph14010001 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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