Recently, there has been increasing worldwide concern about outdoor air pollution, especially particulate matter (PM), which has been extensively researched for its harmful effects on the respiratory system. However, sufficient research on its effects on cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension, remains lacking. In this study, we examine the associations between PM levels and hypertension and hypothesize that higher PM concentrations are associated with elevated blood pressure.
A total of 133,935 adults aged ≥ 40 years who participated in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study were analyzed. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to investigate the short- (1–14 days), medium- (1 and 3 months), and long-term (1 and 2 years) impacts of PM on blood pressure. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the medium- and long-term effects of PM on blood pressure elevation after adjusting for sex, age, body mass index, health-related lifestyle behaviors, and geographic areas.
Using multiple linear regression analyses, both crude and adjusted models generated positive estimates, indicating an association with increased blood pressure, with all results being statistically significant, with the exception of PM levels over the long-term period (1 and 2 years) in non-hypertensive participants. In the logistic regression analyses on non-hypertensive participants, moderate PM10 (particulate matter with diameters < 10 μm) and PM2.5 (particulate matter with diameters < 2.5 μm) levels over the long-term period and all high PM10 and PM2.5 levels were statistically significant after adjusting for various covariates. Notably, high PM2.5 levels of the 1 year exhibited the highest odds ratio of 1.23 (95% confidence interval: 1.19–1.28) after adjustment.
These findings suggest that both short- and long-term exposure to PM is associated with blood pressure elevation.
This study investigated the effect of dispatch frequency on blood cadmium levels and the effect of blood cadmium levels on hypertension in male firefighters in a metropolitan city.
We conducted a retrospective longitudinal study of male firefighters who completed the regular health checkups, including a health examination survey and blood cadmium measurements. We followed them for 3 years. To investigate the effect of dispatch frequency on blood cadmium levels and the effect of blood cadmium levels on hypertension, we estimated the short-term (model 1) and long-term (model 2) effects of exposure and hypothesized a reversed causal pathway model (model 3) for sensitivity analysis. Sequential conditional mean models were fitted using generalized estimating equations, and the odds ratios (ORs) and the respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for hypertension for log-transformed (base 2) blood cadmium levels and quartiles.
Using the lowest category of dispatch frequency as a reference, we observed that the highest category showed an increase in blood cadmium levels of 1.879 (95% CI: 0.673, 3.086) μg/dL and 0.708 (95% CI: 0.023, 1.394) μg/dL in models 2 and 3, respectively. In addition, we observed that doubling the blood cadmium level significantly increased the odds of hypertension in model 1 (OR: 1.772; 95% CI: 1.046, 3.003) and model 3 (OR: 4.288; 95% CI: 1.110, 16.554). Using the lowest quartile of blood cadmium levels as a reference, the highest quartile showed increased odds of hypertension in model 1 (OR: 2.968; 95% CI: 1.121, 7.861) and model 3 (OR: 33.468; 95% CI: 1.881, 595.500).
We found that dispatch frequency may affect blood cadmium levels in male firefighters, and high blood cadmium levels may influence hypertension in a dose-response manner.
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Night shift work induces physiological and psychological stress by altering sleep and biological rhythms and is associated with hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. Few studies have been conducted on the control of hypertension and diabetes. This study aimed to examine the effect of night shift work on the control rate of hypertension and diabetes.
Subjects comprised workers aged 20–65 years who underwent specific health examination at a single facility in seven different affiliated examination centers from 1 January to 31 December 2016. Workers were categorised into day workers and night shift workers. Demographic and medical history were taken, and physical examination was done. Blood pressure (BP) and fasting glucose were measured. The control rate of each disease was evaluated based on treatment goals presented in the treatment guidelines of the Korean Society of Hypertension and the Korean Diabetes Association (systolic BP < 140 mmHg and diastolic BP < 90 mmHg; fasting glucose ≤ 130 mg/dL).
Among 631,418 subjects, 11.2% (70,450) were night shift workers. Of whom 6.1% (4,319) were taking antihypertensive medication and 2.5% (1,775) were taking diabetes medication. Among patients taking antihypertensive medications, the proportion of those whose BP was controlled to suit treatment goals was 81.7% (26,635) of day workers and 77.4% (3,343) of night shift workers, which was significantly different (
Night shift work can have an effect on the uncontrolled BP in workers taking antihypertensive medications. Therefore, additional efforts for disease control are necessary for night shift workers with hypertension.
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In Korea, around the abandoned metal mines, heavy metals are being accumulating in the cultivated areas. Among exposed heavy metals, mercury is known to harm for cardiovascular system known to affect blood pressure. So, we studied the relationship between blood mercury level and hypertension in residents around abandoned metal mines.
From 2008 to 2011, we surveyed 7,055 residents in provinces affected by abandoned metal mines and collected data from 6 Hospitals. We conducted a personal questionnaire interview survey with residents on the basis of household questionnaires, sex, age, household income, smoking, and drinking items. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between blood mercury level and hypertension.
We compared residents with low and high groups based on blood mercury level 5.8 μg/L, and higher group was significantly higher risk of hypertension than lower group (odds ratio [OR]: 1.277; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.135–1.436), also in adjusted model, higher group was significantly higher risk of hypertension than lower group (OR: 1.276; 95% CI: 1.117–1.457).
This study showed a significant correlation between mercury and hypertension in residents around abandoned metal mines. Therefore, we should continuously monitor people who are higher than the standard value and the hypertensive patients.
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Several studies suggest that serum ferritin concentrations reflect systemic inflammation, and high ferritin levels can increase the risk of hypertension in adult men. Shift work is also known to increase the risk of hypertension; however, there has been no study about the relationship between serum ferritin levels and the prevalence of hypertension according to the working type.
This cross-sectional study included 4,442 male participants (3,651 daytime workers and 791 shift workers) who participated in the fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mmHg, a diastolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 90 mmHg or the current use of antihypertensive medications regardless of blood pressure values. For the statistical analyses, serum ferritin levels were reclassified into quartiles, and complex sample analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between serum ferritin levels and the prevalence of hypertension according to the working type in this study.
Serum ferritin and shift work were positively associated with the prevalence of hypertension. The effect of interaction was above multiplicative. When compared to participants in the lowest serum ferritin quartile, the odds ratio for hypertension for participants in the highest serum ferritin quartile was 1.372 (1.027–1.833) in daytime workers and 2.009 (1.042–3.873) in shift workers after adjustment.
The prevalence of hypertension increased as ferritin levels increased in individuals, especially in shift workers.
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The need of efficient resource management and full-time accessibility to resources has increased with the development of industry, resulting in the increase of shift workers. Previous researches of past decades show that there are various health effects on shift workers. However, the definition and the form of shift work have varied from each research and occupational harmful factors except for shift work have not been excluded completely in previous researches. Therefore, in this research, we tried to find out the effect of shift work focusing on the hypertension. To complement previously mentioned weakness of other researches, we performed our research on participants to whom we could minimize other risk factors excluding shift work.
This research examined 1,953 petrochemical plant male workers (shift work 1,075, day worker 878) who did medical checkup from 1st Jan. 2014 to 31th Dec. 2014 in a general hospital located in Ulsan, based on their medical records and questionnaires. With the questionnaire, we found out their basic information including age, social status, occupational history, and we took their physical measurements.
Compared to day workers, shift workers’ odds ratio of developing hypertension was 1.31 (95% CI 0.98–1.75). After adjusting confounding variables, adjusted odds ratio for entire subjects was 1.51 (95% CI 1.11–2.06). Also, for subjects who were in continuous service for over 20 years, odds ratio was 1.51 (95% CI 1.08–2.11).
Shift workers had a higher chance of hypertension than day workers do. Particularly, the longer the workers work continuously, the risk of hypertension getting higher.
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Business owners in the Republic of Korea must take part in the workers’ general health examination. However, there have been few formal analyses of the uptake of this examination by employees. In the present study, we examined the rates of participation in medical examinations according to age group, health insurance type, and enterprise size, and then compared these results with those of the national general health screening. Furthermore, we determined the distribution of patients with abnormal results for diabetes and hypertension, and outlined the significance and history of domestic health examinations.
We started by comparing participation rates extracted from the among health examination data of the National Health Insurance Service from 2006–2013 by sex, age, insurance type, and enterprise size of workplace health insurance beneficiaries (i.e., those whose insurance is provided by their workplace). In addition, we analyzed the prevalence rates of abnormal results for hypertension and diabetes, and explored the history and significance of health examinations in the Republic of Korea.
The overall participation rate in the primary health examination in 2006 was 56%, and this increased to 72% in 2013. However, the rates of the secondary screening did not increase much. Among workplace policyholders (i.e., those whose insurance is provided by their workplace), the participation rates of workers in enterprises with less than 50 employees were lower than were those in enterprises with 50 or more employees. Notably, the rates and odds ratios of patients with abnormal results for diabetes and hypertension were relatively high, particularly among those working in smaller enterprises.
Although the workers’ general health examination has been replaced with the national general health screening, it remains necessary to ensure uniform health management services among all workers in the Republic of Korea. This can, in turn, promote occupational health and improve working conditions throughout the Republic of Korea.
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Many studies have reported an association between overwork and hypertension. However, research on the health effects of long working hours has yielded inconclusive results. The objective of this study was to identify an association between overtime work and hypertension in wage workers 45 years and over of age using prospective data.
Wage workers in Korea aged 45 years and over were selected for inclusion in this study from among 10,254 subjects from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Workers with baseline hypertension and those with other major diseases were excluded. In the end, a total of 1,079 subjects were included. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to calculate hazard ratios and adjust for baseline characteristics such as sex, age, education, income, occupation, form of employment, body mass index, alcohol habit, smoking habit, regular exercise, and number of working days per week. Additional models were used to calculate hazard ratios after gender stratification.
Among the 1,079 subjects, 85 workers were diagnosed with hypertension during 3974.2 person-months. The average number of working hours per week for all subjects was 47.68. The proportion of overtime workers was 61.0% (cutoff, 40 h per week). Compared with those working 40 h and less per week, the hazard ratio of subjects in the final model, which adjusted for all selected variables, working 41-50 h per week was 2.20 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19–4.06), that of subjects working 51-60 h per week was 2.40 (95% CI, 1.07–5.39), and that of subjects working 61 h and over per week was 2.87 (95% CI, 1.33–6.20). In gender stratification models, the hazard ratio of the females tended to be higher than that of the males.
As the number of working hours per week increased, the hazard ratio for diagnosis of hypertension significantly increased. This result suggests a positive association between overtime work and the risk of hypertension.
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