Metabolic risk and health education needs among workers assessed with a preventive health examination
Keywords:
health education; obesity; occupational health; occupational health services; risk reduction behaviorAbstract
Introduction: The preventive health examination for adults is the Chilean health system’s tool for the early detection of chronic diseases in asymptomatic individuals. In the workplace, it makes it possible to characterize workers’ risk profile and to guide health education.
Objective: To characterize the metabolic risk profile of workers assessed with the preventive examination and to identify health education needs in the occupational setting.
Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study of 169 workers from a packaging company in the Metropolitan Region, in four groups from two plants. Anthropometric variables, blood pressure, blood glucose and total cholesterol were analyzed, with 95 % confidence intervals for the means and between-group comparison through Welch’s analysis of variance.
Results: Mean body mass index ranged from 29.9 to 31.9 kg/m², within the obesity range in three of the four groups and with no differences between them (p = 0.490). Mean blood glucose exceeded 100 mg/dl in three groups, with maximum values up to 435 mg/dl. The groups differed in age (p = 0.004) and total cholesterol (p < 0.001), but not in the remaining variables. The youngest group, aged 33.2 years, showed a body mass index of 30.5 kg/m².
Conclusions: The burden of metabolic risk was high and homogeneous across groups, with early expression in the youngest workers. These findings reveal health education needs in the workplace, aimed at primary prevention and self-care for the whole working population.
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