A Longitudinal Survey of the Evolution of Some Cardiovascular Risk Factors during the Careers of Male Firefighters Retiring from Strathclyde Fire Brigade from 1985–1994

Abstract

This paper is based on a retrospective survey of the cardiovascular risk factor records of 526 wholetime male firefighters retiring from Strathclyde Fire Brigade during the decade beginning 1 January 1985 who had accumulated 14,022 man-years of service. Changes in body mass index (BMI) and systolic & diastolic blood pressure (S&DBP) were observed from enlistment and through the triennial routine medical examinations (RME) which took place from age 40 to retirement, usually occuring after age 50. Tobacco consumption, electrocardiographic abnormalities, and fasting lipid levels were checked at each RME. The findings were then subdivided into quinquennia. Mean BMI (+/-1 SD) increased from 23.4(2.6) at enlistment to 26.6(3.2) at retirement with the proportion of those obese (BMI>=30) changing from 1.8% to 17.2% respectively. Systolic and diastolic BP also rose throughout the study from 126(7.14) and 77(7.1 1) to 137(16.9) and 87(10,9). No subjects had BP > 160 or > 110 at enlistment but, on retirement, this had been attained by 7.2 and 2.1%. Mean cholesterol and triglyceride levels rose from 5.23(.70) to 6.21(1.09) and 1.65(0.67) to 1.93(1.32). HDL cholesterol fell from 1.71(0.35) to 1.37(0.46). The proportion of non-smokers rose from 35.9 to 48.9%. When the results were analysed by quinquennia, statistically significant differences at retirement were found for BMI, S&DBP, and triglycerides. This would suggest that health education activities have not been effective in this workforce.