Pattern and Predictors of Cardiovascular Risks among Public Servants in a Southwestern State in Nigeria

Cardiovascular disease is a major public health problem globally. The public service workers, who are facilitators of national development, are particularly vulnerable because the nature of their job predisposes them to unhealthy lifestyles. However, there is paucity of reference data on the profile of cardiovascular risks among public servants in Nigeria. Therefore, this study determined the pattern and predictors of cardiovascular risk among public servants in Southwest, Nigeria.

A total of 1,778 public servants were recruited from 47 Ministries, Departments and Agencies in Ondo State through multi-stage random sampling technique. The World Health Organization Stepwise instrument and Framingham Heart Study non-laboratory cardiovascular risk assessment tool were used to collect data. STATA version 14.2 was used for analysis and p-value of< 0.05 was taken as significant.

The mean age of participants was 44.2±9.1 years. They were predominantly females (64.8%). The proportions of participants with moderate and high 10-year absolute cardiovascular risks were 18.3% and 5.6%, respectively. Significant factors associated with increased cardiovascular risk were age (p=<0.001), sex (p =<0.001), education (p =<0.001), income (p =<0.001), staff category (p =<0.001) and employment grade level (p=<0.001). The significant predictors of increased cardiovascular risk on multivariate analysis were age > 50years (AOR:1.25;CI:1.19-1.32;p=<0.001) and male sex (AOR:6.62; CI:3.76-11.65;p=<0.001).

The prevalence of increased 10-year absolute cardiovascular risk among public servants in Ondo State was high. The significant predictors were age >50 years and male sex. Cardiovascular risk reduction strategies should be encouraged among public servants especially the older males.