A hypertension treatment program at the workplace to complement community care

Prospective surveillance of hypertension in firefighters

The authors evaluated blood pressure and antihypertensive medication use in 334 firefighters in an occupational medical surveillance program. Firefighters received written summaries of their examination results, including blood pressures, and were encouraged to see their personal physicians for any abnormal results. The mean age of the participants was 39 years, and the vast majority were men (n=330). The prevalence of hypertension was 20% at baseline (1996), 23% in 1998, and 23% in 2000. Among firefighters with high blood pressure readings, only 17%, 25%, and 22% were taking antihypertensive medications at the baseline, 1998, and 2000 examinations, respectively. Medical surveillance was effective in detecting hypertension in firefighters; however, after 4 years of follow-up, only 42% of hypertensives were receiving treatment with medications, including only 22% of firefighters with hypertensive readings. Overall, 74% of hypertensives were not adequately controlled. Possible reasons for low treatment rates may be the inadequate recognition among primary care physicians that mild hypertension is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Quality of clinical reports on behavioral interventions for hypertension

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to provide clinicians with the confidence to employ behavioral interventions for hypertension and to guide researchers in the development and reporting of studies.

METHODS

We systematically reviewed English language articles (1970-1999) describing behavioral interventions for hypertension, evaluating aspects of design, analysis, reporting of results, and factors that were associated with higher quality of these studies.

RESULTS

Of 100 articles, 49 were randomized controlled trials (RCT), 33 were observational studies with control groups, and 18 were observational studies without control groups; mean (SE) quality scores were 69.2 (1.6), 57.6 (5.3), and 60.3 (2.2), respectively. RCTs were more likely than observational studies to attain high scores in descriptions of appropriateness of control group, inclusion and exclusion criteria, study population, and the intervention protocol. In multivariate analysis, date of publication, reported funding source, and intervention type were independently associated with greater quality scores: 7.4 [95% CI: 0.03, 14.7] points greater for articles published 1990-1999 vs 1970-1979, 6.5 [95% CI: 1.4, 11.6] points greater for articles reporting government funding vs those not reporting funding sources, and 8.6 [95% CI: 0.3, 17.1], 12.9 [95% CI: 3.4, 22.4], and 14.2 [4.1, 24.4] points greater for articles examining patient education/support, change in delivery system, and mass health campaigns vs articles examining patient reminders, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

While quality has improved over time, there is considerable room for improvement. Investigators should pay particular attention to description of study population and allocation of subjects, the use of standardized outcomes reporting, and appropriate statistical analysis.

Prevalence of hypertension in the adult population of Belgium: report of a worksite study, Attention Hypertension

Hypertension remains a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity in Belgium. Information on the prevalence of hypertension in the working population is desirable. A worksite study of hypertension prevalence was carried out in Belgium where 3472 individuals were screened for 1 week. The result was that high blood pressure (> or = 140/90 mm Hg) was identified in approximately one-third of the men and one-quarter of the women even though the majority of subjects had no recorded history of hypertension. Associations were identified between age and systolic blood pressure and, in men, between systolic blood pressure and alcohol consumption. Most participants in the survey were unaware of their serum cholesterol level. The results of this survey suggest that a large proportion of subjects with high blood pressure in the Belgian working population remain unidentified and indicate a lack of awareness about other cardiovascular risk factors.

Participation in worksite health promotion: a critique of the literature and recommendations for future practice

One of the major rationales for conducting health promotion/disease prevention activities at the worksite is the potential to reach a high percentage of employees, including many who would otherwise be unlikely to engage in preventive health behaviors. Most studies of worksite health promotion do not report participation data, but among those that do, definitions of participation and participation rates vary dramatically. In general, men and blue-collar employees appear less likely to participate, but little is known about other employee variables related to participation. There have been few studies of worksite characteristics associated with participation and even fewer experimental evaluations of interventions to increase participation. In this paper we review what is known about participation in worksite health promotion programs and recommend procedures for defining participation for different types of programs, for reporting determinants of participation, and for increasing participation. We conclude that participation is both an important process measure and an outcome that should be reported routinely. Participation data have important implications for generalizability of results, feasibility of interventions, and health outcomes.

Job absenteeism and arterial hypertension: results of a hypertension control program

This study reports the findings of one of the stages of a programme for the detection and control of arterial hypertension, started in 1980 in an automobile company with a workforce of 9,782. In the initial screening, 522 hypertensive males were found using epidemiological criteria and 206 of these fulfilled the criteria of definite hypertension. The objective of this study consisted of evaluating, 9 years after the start of the program, the indirect cost in terms of the reduction in the morbidity indicator-temporary work incapacity (TWI). Analysis is based on a comparison of the prevalence of hypertension in the population when the program was begun (6%) and in 1989 (9.8%). It can be observed that the TWI rate of the hypertensive population was significantly higher than that of the rest of the workforce, and that this remained true for the reference group (RG) hypertensives a year after the study was initiated. In contrast, the intervention group (IG) showed significantly lower TWI levels, not only in comparison with the RG but also with the rest of the workers. The estimated reduction in TWI for 1989 was 4.500 days/year, which corresponds to an estimated saving of 76.500.000 pesetas/year.