Dyslipidemia and its predictors among adult workers in eastern Ethiopia: An institution-based cross-sectional study

Dyslipidemia is a modifiable major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Although, the prevalence of dyslipidemia in high-income countries has been well documented, there is dearth of information about the dyslipidemia among working adults in sub-Saharan African countries including Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude of dyslipidemia and its associated factors among Haramaya University employees, in Eastern Ethiopia.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,200 university employees aged 20 to 60 years. Study participants were selected using a simple random sampling method. Data were collected face-to-face interview using a semi-structured questionnaire. Dyslipidemia was defined as unhealthy levels of one or more lipid profile such as high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides or total cholesterol. Data were entered into Epidata version 3.1 and analyzed using STATA version 16.1 software. Modified Poisson regression with robust variance was used to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (APR) with its 95% confidence intervals. Statistical significance was declared at P-value < 0.05.

Of 1,164 participants, 59.6% participants had at least one lipid abnormality (i.e., 57.9% among men and 61.5% among women). Of which, 36.8% had high total cholesterol (TC), 21.6% had low high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), 22.4% had high low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), and 32.6% had high triglyceride (TG). We found that overweight/obesity, sedentary behavior, alcohol consumption, having hypertension and age 45 and above years were significant predictors of dyslipidemia. However, those who served fruit and vegetables more than five per day had significantly reduced prevalence ratio of dyslipidemia.

The high prevalent dyslipidemia among university employees is an important public health problem. Hence, tailored interventions to reduce overweight/obesity, hypertension, alcohol consumption and low fruit and vegetable intake have paramount importance to tackle dyslipidemia particularly among older age.