The cardiovascular health status of minority female nursing assistants working in long-term care: A pilot study

Cardiovascular Risk Factors of Long-Term Care Workers

“…Generally, this sample of health care workers had no evidence of CVD health risk factors as they were, overall, normotensive, and lipid panels were within normal limits (except for HDL levels) based on guidelines from the American Heart Association (Go et al, 2013). These findings are inconsistent with prior findings that suggest health care workers have a higher prevalence of CVD health risk factors (e.g., hypertension, hypercholesterolemia) compared with the general population (Flannery, Resnick, et al, 2014; Schult et al, 2011). One possible reason for the discrepancy is that this study sample was younger than those surveyed in prior studies (i.e., mean age of 32 vs. a mean age of 41; Flannery, Resnick, Galik, et al, 2012).…”

“…As noted among other groups of health care workers, almost three quarters of the study sample ( n = 68, 73.1%) were overweight or obese; nationally 64.5% of Americans are overweight or obese (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System & CDC, 2015; Flannery, Resnick, et al, 2014; Schult et al, 2011). This higher rate of obesity among health care workers increases their risk of CVD as well as other diseases such as diabetes (Go et al, 2013; King, March, & Anandacoomarasamy, 2013; National Cancer Institute, 2012).…”

“…Research has shown health care workers have higher or similar rates of overweight or obesity, PA, and hypertension as the general population of the United States (N. Blake, Blayney, Loera, Rowlett, & Schmidt, 2012;H. Blake, Malik, Mo, & Pisano, 2011;Flannery, Resnick, Akpadiaha, & McMullen, 2014;Frank, Tong, Lobelo, Carrera, & Duperly, 2008;Schult, Awosika, Hodgson, & Dyrenforth, 2011;Zapka, Lemon, Magner, & Hale, 2009). In addition, the health behaviors of these individuals extend beyond personal benefit to potentially affect patient behaviors as these caregivers can be role models in regard to diet and PA.…”

Nurses’ occupational physical activity and workload in a perioperative intensive care unit in Slovenia

“…Despite an active work environment, nurses are often not physically active enough outside of work ( Kunene and Taukobong, 2015 , Saridi et al, 2019 , Jun et al, 2019 ), and about half of nurses are overweight or obese ( Nahm et al, 2012 , Flannery et al, 2014 , Flannery et al, 2014 , Almajwal, 2015 , Blake and Batt, 2015 , Chin et al, 2016 ). The most common work-related factors associated with obesity in nurses are shift work, especially working night shifts only ( Zhang et al, 2020 ), high job demands ( Chin et al, 2016 ), and unhealthy food options ( Nicholls et al, 2016 ).…”

Health Care Support Worker Status, Health Behaviors, Mental Health, and Preventive Health Care Use

“…1,2 Despite their crucial role in providing hands-on essential services, they are among the lowest paid, earning a median annual wage of $34 500. 1 HSWs assume physical risks in their roles and work long hours, [3][4][5][6] but little is known about their health. Therefore, we examined and compared health behaviors, mental health status, and preventive health care usage of HSWs with clinicians and the general population.…”