Psychosocial stress and hypertension in nursing staff

Abstract

Objective: To describe the prevalence of systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) and verify the association between psychosocial stress and systemic arterial hypertension in nursing staff. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in an emergency care hospital in Southern Brazil. An instrument with sociodemographic, labor, clinical data and questions of Job Stress Scale was used. Descriptive and multivariate statistics analysis was performed.Results: The prevalence of SAH was 32%. An association was shown between SAH and being considered overweight/obese, having a larger waist circumference, age and self-reported skin color. No association was found between psychosocial stress (Demand Control Model quadrants) and systemic arterial hypertension, as well as with the different levels of blood pressure. Conclusions: High prevalence of hypertension was found among nursing staff although psychosocial stress was not associate with its occurrence. Follow-up studies are needed to elucidate more clearly the influence of the workplace environment on the health-illness process of the workers.

Undiagnosed Hypertension in a Workplace: The Case of a Logistics Company in Gauteng, South Africa

“…The overall prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension (50%) recorded among employees in this study is high. This prevalence is almost similar to the 52% reported among a working population in South Africa [18], but higher compared to prevalence reported among workforces in other countries, such as Brazil (32%) [49] and Nigeria (20.1%) [50]. A South African study on hypertension among primary health care professional nurses has reported that 41% of the health care workers were unaware of their hypertensive status [18].…”