The influence of physical activity on the prevalence of circulatory diseases in industrial workers

Introduction. Cardiovascular pathology continues to occupy a leading place in the structure of the general morbidity among the working-age population. Physical activity is essential in reducing cardiovascular risk. At the same time, there is evidence of the ambiguous effect of the physical activity during occupational and leisure time on the prevalence of circulatory diseases: intense occupational physical activity does not bring the same benefits to the health of workers as physical activity over leisure time.

The purpose. Assessment of the influence of different levels of physical activity during occupational and leisure time on the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, in particular, arterial hypertension, among manufacturing labourers.

Materials and methods. To assess the levels of occupational and leisure time physical activity during periodic medical examinations, a survey of one thousand two hundred eighty eight employees of metallurgical enterprises was conducted using the IPAQ – International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Physical activity was graded in three levels: low, moderate, and intense. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was calculated. Interaction plots and logistic regression models were constructed for indicators with the highest correlation coefficients.

Results. The reduction of the risk of developing cardiovascular pathology, according to the results of this study, is observed by increasing the time devoted to intensive physical activity in the leisure time and during the work. The physical activity during the leisure time has the greatest favourable effect on the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. Occupational physical activity also has a favourable effect, but less so compared to exercise over leisure time.

Limitations. This study did not conduct a comparative analysis of the influence of different physical activity levels on cardiovascular diseases according to a special assessment of working conditions with the results of the impact of different physical activity levels according to the results of a questionnaire.

Conclusions. The results obtained give grounds to recommend that employees of metallurgical enterprises to increase the amount of physical activity during the leisure time, especially with increasing age to reduce cardiovascular risk.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was conducted according to the generally accepted scientific principles of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association (ed. 2013). All participants gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study.

Contribution:
Shirokov V.A. – concept and design of the study, text writing, discussion of the results, editing;
Varaksin A.N. – data processing, statistical analysis, discussion of results, editing;
Terekhov N.L. – data collection, statistical analysis, discussion of the results;
Gavrilchenko D.S. – processing of material, collection of literature data, writing text, discussion of the results.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: June 6, 2024 / Revised: September 4, 2024 / Accepted: December 3, 2024 / Published: March 7, 2025