Prevalence of non-communicable disease risk factors among nurses and para-health professionals working at primary healthcare level of Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

Mithila Faruque; Lingkan Barua; Palash Chandra Banik; Sharmin Sultana; Animesh Biswas; Abdul Alim; Pradip Kumar Sen Gupta; Liaquat Ali

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043298

Prevalence of non-communicable disease risk factors among nurses and para-health professionals working at primary healthcare level of Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

BMJ Open. 2021 Mar 19;11(3):e043298. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043298.

Authors

Mithila Faruque¹, Lingkan Barua², Palash Chandra Banik¹, Sharmin Sultana¹, Animesh Biswas³, Abdul Alim⁴, Pradip Kumar Sen Gupta⁵, Liaquat Ali⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Noncommunicable Diseases, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Department of Noncommunicable Diseases, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Dhaka, Bangladesh lingkanbarua@gmail.com.
³ Department of Applied Laboratory Sciences, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁴ Noncommunicable Disease Control Program, Directorate General of Health Service, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁶ Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors among nurses and para-health professionals (PHPs) working at primary healthcare centres in Bangladesh. In addition to this, we also investigated the association of these risk factors with the categories of health professions.

Design: Cross-sectional study and the sampling technique was a census.

Setting: The study site was a medical university of Bangladesh where the study population was recruited by NCD Control Programme of Directorate General of Health Services to participate in a 3-day training session from November 2017 to May 2018.

Participants: A total of 1942 government-employed senior staff nurses (SSNs) and PHPs working at Upazila Health Complexes.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: The data were collected using a modified STEPwise approach to NCD risk factors surveillance questionnaire of the World Health Organisation (V.3.2). The prevalence of NCD risk factors was presented descriptively and the χ² test was used to determine the association between NCD risk factors distribution and categories of health professions.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 37.6 years (SD 9.5) and most of them (87.6%) had a diploma in their respective fields. Physical inactivity (86.9%), inadequate fruits and/vegetable intake (56.3%) and added salt intake (35.6%) were the most prevalent behavioural risk factors. The prevalence of central obesity, overweight, raised blood glucose and raised BP were 83.5%, 42.6%, 19.2% and 12.8% respectively. Overall, the NCD risk factors prevalence was higher among PHPs compared with SSNs. A highly significant association (p<0.001) was found between risk factors and the categories of health professions for tobacco use, alcohol intake, added salt intake and physical inactivity.

Conclusion: High NCD risk factors prevalence and its significant association with SSNs and PHPs demand an appropriate risk-reduction strategy to minimise the possibility of chronic illness among them.

Keywords: epidemiology; general medicine (see internal medicine); public health.

MeSH terms

Adult
Bangladesh / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Hypertension*
Noncommunicable Diseases* / epidemiology
Prevalence
Primary Health Care
Risk Factors