| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2014 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 2 | Page : 78 |
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Prevalence and factors affecting hypertension among auto-rickshaw drivers working in Nagpur city of Maharashtra
SS Chaudhary1, MM Nagargoje2, SS Kubde3
1 Lecturer, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, S. N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, S. N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
3 Associate Professor, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Indira Gandhi Government Medical College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
Correspondence Address:
S S Chaudhary
Assistant Professor, Dept of Social and Preventive Medicine, S. N. Medical College, Agra (U.P.)- 282002
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/2321-7006.302692
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Background: The environment in which professional drivers spend the majority of their time is polluted, noisy and dangerous. Drivers are exposed to harmful environment and stressful occupational conditions. These work-related harmful factors might cause various health problems and increase in blood pressure or hypertension is one of such problems.
Objectives: 1) To find the blood pressure among auto-rickshaw drivers working in Nagpur city; and 2) To study some demographic and occupational factors associated with hypertension in them.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 926 auto-rickshaw drivers (ARDs) at the auto-rickshaw stand of Nagpur railway station. Data analysis was done using Microsoft Office Excel workbook 2003.
Results: Mean age of ARDs was 41.70±9.05 years. Mean SBP of study subjects was 124.45± 15.85 mm of Hg; while mean DBP was 82.00± 14.05 mm of Hg. 17.57% subjects were found to have systolic hypertension; while 32.43% had diastolic hypertension. Overall only 27.70% subjects had normal blood pressure; while 37.16% subjects had pre-hypertension and 35.14% had hypertension. Some factors whose association was found to be statistically significant with hypertension were age in years, number and duration of breaks during working hours, regular physical exercise, alcohol intake, tobacco consumption and body mass index.
Conclusion: As more than one third of the auto-rickshaw drivers in the present study had hypertension; regular health checkups and appropriate treatment of these auto-rickshaw drivers is recommended.
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