Blood pressure among tannery workers

Introduction Cardiovascular diseases have been shown to be the leading caus e of death in Brazil since the 1970s. High blood pressure has been the majo r risk factor among the above mentioned diseases. A negative correlation be tween occupational qualification and blood pressure has been observed among workers. The above mentioned facts bring out the importance of the knowled ge of high blood pressure distribution among the different occupational gro ups. The aim of the preset study was to describe the distribution of blood pressure in stable and homogeneous population of unskilled, low wage larnin g industrial workers. The Prevalence of high blood pressure was established for this specific group. This prevalence was also related to some biologic al and socio-economical covariates as compared with that among other occupa tional groups in Brazil. Method The subjects were 73 active employees at a tannery in Botucatu, stat e of S. Paulo, Brazil, in July 1993. These subjects underwent blood pressur e measurements, anamnesis and clinical examination. The results were compar ed with those of similar studies carried out in elsewhere Brazil. Age confo unding was controlled by different techniques. Result The crude prevalence of high blood pressure detected in this group o f workers was of 56.1%, with 15.8% of isolated systolic hypertension. Alcoh ol abuse and smoking were associated with high blood pressure and isolated systolic hypertension in the population studied. Discussion Prevalence of hypertension in the group studied is significantly higher than that observed in other groups of workers studied in Brazil. Su ch a finding points to the need for further investigation so as to isolate those factors involved in the increased blood pressure found in this group.