Workers' Activity Profiles Associated With Predicted 10-Year Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Cardiovascular Epidemiology
• Physical Activity Research

Background:

• Growing need to understand worker activity patterns and their link to cardiovascular disease (CVD).
• Previous research has not fully elucidated the association between distinct worker activity profiles and atherosclerotic CVD risk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify distinct physical activity patterns among workers using accelerometer data.
• To examine the association between these identified activity profiles and the predicted 10-year risk of atherosclerotic CVD.

Main Methods:

• Utilized hierarchical cluster analysis on accelerometer data from 8909 Canadian Health Measures Survey participants (2007-2017).
• Employed robust Poisson regression to estimate associations between activity profiles and high atherosclerotic CVD risk (>10%).
• Controlled for covariates including work factors, sociodemographics, clinical markers, and lifestyle variables.

Main Results:

• Identified six distinct worker activity profiles.
• The 'highest activity' and 'moderate evening activity' profiles were associated with a 42% and 33% lower risk of high 10-year atherosclerotic CVD risk, respectively.
• Moderate activity and fluctuating moderate activity also showed reduced risk, while high daytime work activity did not significantly lower CVD risk compared to the lowest activity profile.

Conclusions:

• Accumulating physical activity throughout the day and during recreational periods is linked to optimal cardiovascular disease risk profiles in workers.
• Physical activity solely during daytime work hours does not appear to confer significant cardiovascular benefits.
• Findings suggest alternative strategies are needed to promote cardiovascular health among workers, beyond work-hour activity alone.