Fatores sociodemográficos e ocupacionais associados às alterações em parâmetros morfológicos e cardiovasculares em profissionais de ambientes hospitalares

Abstract

Introduction: Hospital workers are exposed to several occupational factors that mayadversely affect their health, including long working hours, high levels of occupational stress,and difficulties in adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors. These conditions may contribute tochanges in morphological parameters, such as excess body weight and central adiposity, aswell as cardiovascular parameters, including elevated blood pressure and resting heart rate.However, evidence regarding the sociodemographic and occupational factors associated withthese changes in this population remains limited. Objective: To evaluate the associationbetween sociodemographic and occupational factors (sex, age, work area, and educationallevel) and changes in morphological and cardiovascular parameters among hospital workers.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted usingsecondary data from hospital workers at the Walter Cantídio University Hospital (Fortaleza,Ceará, Brazil), obtained from physical assessment records of the Casa Viva program throughOctober 2024. Sociodemographic, anthropometric, body composition, and cardiovascularvariables were analyzed. Associations between variables were assessed using the Chi-square test, adopting a significance level of 5%, with effect size estimated using Cramer's V.Results: A total of 488 hospital workers were evaluated, predominantly women (78.7%),adults (90.0%), and healthcare professionals (57.9%). Overweight was the most frequentbody mass index classification (37.7%), followed by normal weight (35.2%). Most participantspresented abdominal circumference indicative of hypertension risk (53.3%), normal body fatpercentage (59.1%), and prehypertension according to the overall blood pressureclassification (44.8%). Significant associations were observed between body mass indexclassification and sex (p = 0.024; large effect size) and work area (p = 0.006; moderate effectsize); between waist circumference and sex (p = 0.044; small effect size); between abdominalcircumference and sex (p < 0.001; very large effect size) and age (p = 0.015; moderate effectsize); between waist-to-hip ratio and sex (p = 0.038; small effect size); and between bloodpressure classification and sex (p < 0.001; large effect size) and work area (p = 0.017;moderate effect size). No significant associations were observed for educational level.Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrate that sociodemographic and occupationalfactors are associated with morphological and cardiovascular parameters among hospitalworkers. These results may contribute to the development of health promotion andcardiometabolic disease prevention strategies tailored to the characteristics of this populationin the workplace.