Cardiovascular risk factors in textile workers: prevalence and intervention

This study included 1,390 textile workers from a southern state who received a screening for risk factors for heart disease. Occupational health nurses then provided an education/counseling intervention and one or more American Heart Association pamphlets using the results of the screening. Over half of the workers had at least one modifiable risk factor for heart disease. The most common modifiable risk factor was smoking. Most of the participants (60.8%) had a cholesterol level less than 200 mg/dL, but 27.4% were in the borderline high range of 200-239 mg/dL, and 11.8% had a cholesterol of 240 mg/dL or higher. Almost 26% of the participants had a blood pressure of 140/90 or higher. Findings on a subset of 544 workers re-screened at 6 months were: workers with hypertension were able to lower their blood pressure significantly; cholesterol levels increased slightly in all participants except white males; and although some smokers stopped smoking, others began smoking, so the total number of smokers at the second test was actually slightly higher than at the first screening.