[Continuous care, one more cardiovascular risk factor to consider?]

To assess blood pressure (BP) in Primary Care (PC) professionals while working extra shifts and its relationship with the professional role, anxiety level and social support.

Descriptive,, cross-sectional, multicentre and prospective study.

PC health workers from Toledo Health Area who work on-call shifts.

diagnosed hypertension, African origin, cardiovascular disease or chronic treatment. Voluntary sampling.

sociodemographic, occupational and STAI questionnaire (anxiety state/feature); ISTAS21 questionnaire (psychosocial risks at work), and Ambulatory BP Monitoring with a Holter for two days, 48h: one of them during the shift and the other one during a day without being on-call.

The BP monitor showed significant differences in daytime systolic BP: rest day115.9±8,3mmHg/ Shift mean: 120.2±8,1 (t=4.319; P<0.001); daytime diastolic: rest day 73.3±5.9mmHg/Shift 77.9±6.1 (t=6.555; P<0.001); night systolic: rest day 106.8±8.3mmHg/shift 111.6±9.5 (t=3.4; P<0.001); night diastolic: rest day 65.1±5.6mmHg/Shift 69.1±6.9 (t=4.14; P<0.0001). We found no relationship between variations in the BP, the category or role. The ISTAS dimensions (health situation status) and the anxiety level (average of 5/10 during the shift) are not related with the BP either.

There are significant changes in the BP of the professional during the extra shifts, independently of professional role, anxiety level or psychosocial risk. Studies need to be conducted on the demonstrated variation in BP working extra shifts to assess its impact on health.