Lifestyle factors associated with cardiovascular risk among healthcare workers from the tertiary hospitals in Sarawak

INTRODUCTION: A cross-sectional study is used to evaluate the lifestyle factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among healthcare workers in tertiary hospitals in Sarawak, Malaysia.

METHODS: A questionnaire-based survey using the Simple Lifestyle Indicator Questionnaire (SLIQ) was administered to, and anthropometric measurements were collected from, 494 healthcare workers.

RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 32.4±8.4, with a range of 19 to 59 years. The subjects were from the allied health (45.5%), management and professional (25.1%) and executive (29.4%) fields. Overall, 47.4% of the subjects were of normal weight, 30.2% were overweight, 17.2% were obese and 5.2% were underweight. The mean number of working hours per week for the subjects was 47.6±14.0 with the highest working hours found among the management and professional group, followed by the executive and allied health groups. Overall, 39.7% of the healthcare workers worked office hours, 36.6% worked within the shift system, 20.9% worked office hours and were on-call and the remaining 2.8% worked a mixture of office hours and shifts. Based on the SLIQ score, 58.1% were classified as at intermediate risk for CVD, 38.5% were in the healthy category and 3.4% were in the unhealthy category. Factors associated with a healthier lifestyle were being female (Odds Ratio [OR]= 12.1; CI=3.2-46.4), professional (mean score= 6.70), in the allied health group (mean score=7.33) and in the normal BMI group (OR= 9.3, CI= 1.8-47.0).

CONCLUSION: In our study, healthcare workers had an intermediate risk of developing CVD in the future. Thus, there is a need to intervene in the lifestyle factors contributing to CVD.