Impact of Shift Work on Diet And Cardiovascular Health of Fire-Fighters in Selected Fires Stations in The Accra Metropolitan Areas

ABSTRACT

Background: Night shift work has been shown to induce stress, disturb family life, interrupt regular meal schedules (leading to lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals) and create lifestyle problems. These shift work-associated problems lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol; all possible cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. Fire-fighters are one category of workers who undertake rotating night shift work in Ghana. Aim: This study determined the impact of shift work on diet and cardiovascular risk factors of fire-fighters in selected fire stations in the Accra Metropolitan Area. Methods: The study was cross-sectional. Fire-fighters in four fire stations in the Accra Metropolitan Area were recruited and undertook full lipid and fasting glucose tests. Blood pressure, waist and hip circumferences, height and weight were measured. Questionnaires were used to collect information on socio-demographic variables, CV risk factors and eating patterns. Associations between shift work and dietary patterns, nutrient intake and CV risk factors among the fire-fighters were analysed. Results: A total of 160 respondents (83 shift workers and 73 non-shift workers) were recruited. Majority of the shift workers had inappropriate meal patterns: they had lower energy intake compared to non-shift workers, they did not eat breakfast at home, and they skipped meals and bought most of their meals from outside more often than the non- shift workers. The shift workers had higher prevalence for overweight than non-shift workers. The prevalence of high anthropometric indices such as total body fat and waist to hip ratio (WHR) was higher for female shift workers than female non-shift workers. The prevalence of dyslipidaemia was higher for shift workers than non-shift workers. High total cholesterol (≥ 6.24 mmol/l) was 59.1 % and high LDL (≥ 4.2mmol/l) was 52 % for shift workers whiles the prevalence of low HDL (≤ 1mmol/l) was 26.5 %. The vi prevalence of high fasting blood sugar was low (3.6 %) for the shift workers. Life style CV risk factors such as drinking and smoking were also low among shift workers. Very few shift workers were physically active at work. However, no significant association (all p > 0.05) was found between CV risk factors of the shift and non-shift fire-fighters. Conclusion: Shift workers in general, had higher prevalence for overweight than the non-shift workers. The study revealed that 35.4 % of shift workers were overweight and 34.9 % of male shift fire-fighters had high CV risk factor for WC whiles over 27.7 % of the female shift workers had high CV risk factor for total body fat. There was relatively high prevalence of dyslipidaemia among the shift workers which puts them at risk of developing CVDs.