Cardiovascular risk factors among nurses: A global systematic review and meta-analysis

Nurses as the largest group of health workers have a very stressful job which can cause number of diseases specially increase cardiovascular risk factors. This study aims to investigate the overall epidemiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among nurses.

We searched all four main databases such as Scopus, PubMed, Embase and Web of Sciences from the beginning of 2000 to March 2022 with appropriate Mesh Terms. We also searched Google scholar. Then we applied inclusion and exclusion criteria and after selection the studies the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the methodological quality of included studies. Comprehensive Meta-analysis and R software was used for analysis.

Finally, 22 articles with a total number of 117922 nurses were included. Among all risk factors, sedentary lifestyle and lack of regular physical activity with a prevalence of 46.3% (CI 95%, 26.6-67.2) was regarded as the main prevalent risk factor among nurses. The mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) measured in the study population was 121.31 (CI 95%, 114.73-127.90) and the mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 78.08 (CI 95%, 74.90-81.25). Also family history of cardiovascular disease (41.9%; 95% IC: 29.8-55.1%), being overweight (33.3%; 95% IC: 24.7-43.2%), and alcohol consumption (24.6%; 95% IC: 16.4-35.2%) was found among the participants.

Study results revealed that sedentary lifestyle was the main prevalent CVD risk factor among nurses followed by family history of cardiovascular disease, being overweight and alcohol consumption. Furthermore, among nurses with shift works almost all risk factors got higher score representing the worse condition in comparison with day workers' nurses. This study enables learning the associated risk factors of CVD among nurses to facilitate interventional programs with a view to reduce the exposure of nursing staff particularly those who work in shifts to cardiovascular risk factors.

In general, many studies have emphasized the impact of the nursing profession on the incidence of some cardiovascular patients. Also, different shifts of nurses can have a double effect.

In this study, the mean for sedentary lifestyle was reported to be 46.3% which represented the most prevalent risk factor for cardiovascular risk factors among study population.

This study enables learning the associated risk factors of CVD among nurses to facilitate interventional programs with a view to reduce the exposure of nursing staff particularly those who work in shifts to cardiovascular risk factors. This information can comprise essential tools for health human resource management contributing to advance nursing.