Cardiovascular Risk Profile of Apparently Healthy Workers in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Cardiovascular disease incidence is rising in Nigeria. This study was done to identify cardiovascular risk factors and assess the 10-year cardiovascular risk score of healthcare workers of a tertiary hospital in south-western Nigeria.

In this cross-sectional study, apparently healthy workers of a tertiary hospital in Nigeria were studied. Fifty-two individuals were recruited into the study. Anthropometric measures, blood pressure, fasting lipid profile and HbA1c were obtained using the standard protocols. QRISK3 score was also calculated.

The Mean±SD age of participants was 44.9±8.1 years. Dyslipidaemia was the most common risk factor among apparently healthy healthcare workers, while glucose intolerance was the least common. Also, 48.1% of the subjects had at least one cardiovascular risk factor and 15.4% had 3 or more cardiovascular risk factors. The 10-year cardiovascular risk using QRISK3 was moderate in 3.8%. There was no statistically significant difference in the 10-year cardiovascular risk score between the clinical and non-clinical healthcare workers (P=0.313; t=0.819). However, male participants had a significantly higher 10-year cardiovascular risk score compared with the females (3.50 vs. 1.56; P<0.001; t=3.741).

Cardiovascular risk factors are prevalent among health workers and closer attention needs to be paid to these factors by the hospital management to mitigate cardiovascular disease among the staff.