A cross-sectional study on the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in police personnel of Karimnagar mandal

Abstract Introduction: Many studies showed that police officers complained about physical and mental health issues due to job stress. These work stresses lead to adopting unhealthy lifestyles and habits including the harmful use of alcohol and tobacco use which leads to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and other NCDs. Methods: This cross-sectional study included all male police personnel of all cadres from nine police stations of Karimnagar Mandal. WHO STEPS NCD survey questionnaires were used to collect basic soci-demographic information, clinical history, stress, and anthropometry for measurements of CVD risk factors. Result: 253 police personnel with a mean age of 41.09 years enrolled from all cadres. 152 (60%) of police personnel had multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Hypercholesterolemia (37.2%) followed by a sedentary lifestyle (30.8%), and diabetes mellitus (14.6%) were important findings in this study. This study has also revealed an important link between preceding conditions for developing cardiovascular diseases such as pre-hypertension in 42.7% and impaired fasting glucose level in 25.7% of police personnel. Half of the study police personnel had a family history of NCDs and it was not statistically significant with service experience. There was a strong association between years of experience and tobacco and alcohol use. Organizational and operational stress levels increased with the increase in years of experience in policing (p-value<0. 01). Conclusion: Smoking and alcohol consumption were more prevalent among Police personnel which need to be controlled. Physical inactivity was another important area. Their attitude towards controlling the risk factors and practicing healthy behavior to safeguard from cardiovascular diseases has to be strengthened. It can be done by conducting regular awareness camps, training sessions, and regular cardiac risk factor evaluations for all police personnel.