Background: The attitude of sanitary workers is essential for the control of arterial hypertension (HT). The aim of the study was to identify the prevalence of HT and some cardiovascular risk factors in both sanitary and non-sanitary hospital workers and the knowledge, therapeutic compliance and control of hypertense individuals.
Subjects and methods: Two tensional measurements were obtained by using a manometer of mercury at the beginning and at the end of an epidemiological request. A logistic regression model was obtained to evaluate the association between HT and risk factors.
Results: One thousand and one individuals (762 females) with a median age of 37.2 years were studied. Prevalence of HT was 9.7%. Men showed a higher age-related prevalence than women (19.7 vs 6.6%, p < 0.001). Body mass index was higher in HT individuals. Thirty eight per cent of the hospital workers were smokers. HT prevalence increased with alcohol consumption. Sex, mass body index and age were significantly associated with HT. Knowledge, therapeutic compliance and control of HT were 73.2, 19.7 and 28%, respectively, in the total group and 61, 26.3 and 0%, respectively, in the group of physicians and nurses.
Conclusions: Hospital workers showed a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. Inadequate therapeutic and control measures were observed on both nurses and physicians with high blood pressure.