RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Personal, occupational and cardiovascular risk factors associated with elevated blood pressure in Brazilian firefighters: a cross-sectional study
JF BMJ Open
JO BMJ Open
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e088084
DO 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088084
VO 15
IS 1
A1 Sales, Igor Magalhães
A1 Damacena, Fernanda Camargo
A1 Zandonade, Eliana
A1 Sampaio, Karla Nívea
YR 2025
UL http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/1/e088084.abstract
AB Objective Our study evaluated the prevalence of hypertension in a population of Brazilian firefighters and the association of elevated blood pressure (BP) with personal, occupational, and cardiovascular risk factors.Design This was a cross-sectional study.Setting Our study was based on health inspections of the Military Fire Brigade of the Espírito Santo State, Brazil, performed in 2019.Participants The study participants were 859 male Brazilian firefighters.Outcome measures Data collected included sociodemographic (age, ethnicity, educational level, health insurance coverage), occupational (city of work, type of current activity, main operational activity), lifestyle (smoking and alcohol consumption), and health status (fasting glucose, total cholesterol and triglycerides, blood pressure, and anthropometric composition). All firefighters in the pre-hypertension and hypertension range and/or using antihypertensive medication were considered as having BP above normal, and the association of this outcome with sociodemographic, occupational, lifestyle, and health status variables was analysed by a logistic regression model.Results We found that 45.6% of firefighters presented elevated BP levels. A higher chance of elevated BP was observed for firefighters with high school (1.5; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02 to 2.19) and postgraduate (1.54; 95% CI 1.03 to 2.30) educational levels, those self-declared as black (1.98; 95% CI 1.03 to 3.78), those working in countryside cities (ie, locations outside the metropolitan circuit; 2.32; 95% CI 1.14 to 4.71), and those with hypertriglyceridemia (1.92; 95% CI 1.19 to 3.11), hyperglycaemia (1.5; 95% CI 1.01 to 2.22), and central obesity (2.34; 95% CI 1.47 to 3.70).Conclusion We found an association between elevated BP and personal, occupational, and cardiovascular risk factors. Awareness of risk factors may grant implementation of more effective intervention and prevention strategies.Data are available upon reasonable request. The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the CBMES. Still, restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current research and are not publicly available. Data are, however, available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission from the command of the CBMES.