[Blood pressure among tannery workers]

Cardiovascular diseases have been shown to be the leading cause of death in Brazil since the 1970s. High blood pressure has been the major risk factor among the above mentioned diseases. A negative correlation between occupational qualification and blood pressure has been observed among workers. The above mentioned facts bring out the importance of the knowledge of high blood pressure distribution among the different occupational groups. The aim of the present study was to describe the distribution of blood pressure in stable and homogeneous population of unskilled, low wage earning industrial workers. The Prevalence of high blood pressure was established for this specific group. This prevalence was also related to some biological and socio-economical covariates as compared with that among other occupational groups in Brazil.

The subjects were 73 active employees at a tannery in Botucatu, state of S. Paulo, Brazil, in July 1993. These subjects underwent blood pressure measurements, anamnesis and clinical examination. The results were compared with those of similar studies carried out in elsewhere Brazil. Age confounding was controlled by different techniques.

The crude prevalence of high blood pressure detected in this group of workers was of 56.1%, with 15.8% of isolated systolic hypertension. Alcohol abuse and smoking were associated with high blood pressure and isolated systolic hypertension in the population studied.

Prevalence of hypertension in the group studied is significantly higher than that observed in other groups of workers studied in Brazil. Such a finding points to the need for further investigation so as to isolate those factors involved in the increased blood pressure found in this group.