Coronary heart disease in police officers participating in the Normative Aging Study

There is evidence suggesting that male police officers are at a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease than males in the general population. Thus, 1648 men (including 220 police officers and 1428 non-police officers) were followed for 10 years to determine the incidence of coronary heart disease. Subjects were participants of the Normative Aging Study, a longitudinal study of aging initiated in 1963 at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston, Massachusetts. Comparison of police officers and non-police officers showed no statistically significant differences in the crude incidence rates of coronary heart disease (myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, or death from coronary heart disease) and myocardial infarction alone. When baseline age, serum cholesterol, blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and body mass index were taken into consideration in multiple logistic regression analyses, the lack of significant differences between groups persisted. Police officers relative to non-police officers had an adjusted risk ratio (odds ratio) of 1.4 (95% confidence interval = 0.7-2.4) for coronary heart disease and 1.0 (95% confidence interval = 0.4-2.4) for myocardial infarction. Differences between occupational groups were not statistically significant.