Shift work and cardiovascular risk factors in the nurses of the emergency and intensive care wards of educational hospitals affiliated to Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2012- 2013

Background: The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases areas major health problems are increasing. There are many factors related this high prevalence including stress, working environment, job and lifestyle. Nurses are at risk for heart diseases. Since nurses have been recognized as an important part of any healthcare systems, this study was aimed to identify the relationship between work shift and risk factors in heart diseases.
Methods: This study was a descriptive analytical and sectional research conducted on 400 nurses working in the emergency and intensive words of educational hospitals of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. A cluster sampling method was used. The data collection tool was a questionnaire and a check list for recording sample blood test results. Data was analyzed by using SPSS software version 16 and descriptive and analytical statistics formula.
Results: The results of this study showed that 57.5% of these subjects were female with an average age 30.8 years. Moreover 88/8 %had a BS degree in nursing and 79.8% were in shift work. The major risk factor was hyper triglyceridemia identified in 30.8% of the subjects. Furthermore, the results indicated a significant relationship between overtime working hours with the prevalence of systolic and diastolic hypertension, high triglycerides, high total cholesterol and 'high-density lipoprotein cholesterol' lower than normal (p‹0.001).
Conclusion: According to the results, most cardiovascular risk factors appear to be in the nurses working in overtime hours. The results did not show a high prevalence of the risk factors compared to the other studies' findings about the other people, so further research was recommended to do.