TY - JOUR
T1 - Associations between occupational relative aerobic workload and resting blood pressure among different age groups
T2 - A cross-sectional analysis in the DPhacto study
AU - Korshj, Mette
AU - Clays, Els
AU - Krause, Niklas
AU - Gupta, Nidhi
AU - Jørgensen, Marie Birk
AU - Holtermann, Andreas
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - Objective High levels of occupational physical activity (OPA) increase heart rate, blood pressure (BP) and the risk of hypertension. Older workers may be more vulnerable to high levels of OPA due to age-related degeneration of the cardiovascular system and cardiorespiratory fitness. This study investigates the association of relative aerobic workload (RAW) with resting BP and examines if this relation is moderated by age. Design Cross-sectional epidemiological study. Setting Data were collected among employees of 15 Danish companies in the cleaning, manufacturing and transport sectors. Participants 2107 employees were invited for participation, of these 1087 accepted and 562 (42% female and 4% non-Westerns) were included in the analysis based on the criteria of being non-pregnant, no allergy to bandages, sufficient amount of heart rate data corresponding to ≥4 work hours per workday or 75% of average work hours, and no missing outcome and confounder values. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome measure was BP. Results Heart rate reserve was estimated from ambulatory 24-hour heart rate measures covering 2.5 workdays per participant (SD 1.0 day). Age significantly moderated the association between RAW and BP. Mean intensity and duration of high RAW (≥30% heart rate reserve) showed positive associations with diastolic BP and negative associations with pulse pressure (PP) among participants ≥47 years old. Tendencies towards negative associations between RAW and BP were seen among participants <47 years old. Conclusions Mean intensity and duration of RAW increased diastolic BP among participants ≥47 years old. Negative associations with PP may be due to healthy worker selection bias. Prevention of hypertension should consider reductions in RAW for ageing workers.
AB - Objective High levels of occupational physical activity (OPA) increase heart rate, blood pressure (BP) and the risk of hypertension. Older workers may be more vulnerable to high levels of OPA due to age-related degeneration of the cardiovascular system and cardiorespiratory fitness. This study investigates the association of relative aerobic workload (RAW) with resting BP and examines if this relation is moderated by age. Design Cross-sectional epidemiological study. Setting Data were collected among employees of 15 Danish companies in the cleaning, manufacturing and transport sectors. Participants 2107 employees were invited for participation, of these 1087 accepted and 562 (42% female and 4% non-Westerns) were included in the analysis based on the criteria of being non-pregnant, no allergy to bandages, sufficient amount of heart rate data corresponding to ≥4 work hours per workday or 75% of average work hours, and no missing outcome and confounder values. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome measure was BP. Results Heart rate reserve was estimated from ambulatory 24-hour heart rate measures covering 2.5 workdays per participant (SD 1.0 day). Age significantly moderated the association between RAW and BP. Mean intensity and duration of high RAW (≥30% heart rate reserve) showed positive associations with diastolic BP and negative associations with pulse pressure (PP) among participants ≥47 years old. Tendencies towards negative associations between RAW and BP were seen among participants <47 years old. Conclusions Mean intensity and duration of RAW increased diastolic BP among participants ≥47 years old. Negative associations with PP may be due to healthy worker selection bias. Prevention of hypertension should consider reductions in RAW for ageing workers.
KW - cardiovascular risk factor
KW - HR reserve
KW - hypertension
KW - occupational physical activity
KW - physical workload
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072611544&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029713
DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029713
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 31551379
AN - SCOPUS:85072611544
SN - 2044-6055
VL - 9
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - BMJ Open
JF - BMJ Open
IS - 9
M1 - e029713
ER -