Factors of hypertension, metabolic syndrome and musculoskeletal injury risk in the Bedfordshire Police.

Abstract

Rationale: Compromises in individual's health (Elliott-Davies et al., 2016) and absenteeism rate increases are resultant from reduced operational police numbers (Houdmont and Elliot-Davies, 2016). Performing police work is known to be deleterious to health due to the sudden bursts of high intensity activity performed (Kales et al. 2009). Reduced staff numbers places individuals under greater strain operationally (Arnott, Emmerson and Singer, 2001), and may also increase threats to health through longer working hours compromising lifestyle (Gu et al., 2012). By surveying the health status of a police organisation, it is possible to understand what impact reduced operational numbers may have had in order to critically inform future preventative interventions.Aim: The aim of this study was to assess Bedfordshire Police with particular focus on three main health themes; hypertension, metabolic syndrome and musculoskeletal injury risk.Method: 137 Bedfordshire police employees completed a variety of physiological, lifestyle and occupational measures. The sample was divided by gender and into non-operational and operational personnel, for comparisons between groups.Results: A significant main effect of gender existed for systolic blood pressure (P < 0.05). A significantly higher (P < 0.001, 95%CI: 8 to 25 mmHg) SBP was observed in males (136 ± 11 mmHg) compared with females (119 ± 13 mmHg) in non-operational personnel. No significant main effect of job type existed in systolic blood pressure. No significant main effect of job type or interaction effect existed between gender and job type in musculoskeletal injury, metabolic syndrome and diastolic blood pressure. Metabolic syndrome was significantly greater in males than females (P < 0.05).Conclusion: High prevalence of the main health themes existed. A significantly higher SBP was observed in males compared to females in non-operational personnel (P < 0.001). Increased trends of METSYN and MSK were observed in operational personnel although non-significant. Risk factors; HDL, WHR, PSQ-ORG and PSQ-OP were significantly different in operational personnel (P < 0.05). Future interventions should be focus on physical activity and dietary changes to improve body composition. Future research should be directed toward the impact of stress, shift work and dietary habits in this population.

Date of Award	22 Mar 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bedfordshire
Supervisor	Jo Richards (Supervisor), Jeffrey Aldous (Second supervisor) & Andrew Mitchell (Third supervisor)