Health disparities in police officers: comparisons to the U.S. general population

Details

• Personal Author:
  Andrew, Michael E. ; Burchfiel CM ; Fekedulegn D ; Hartley TA ; Violanti JM
• Description:
  Police officers have one of the poorest cardiovascular disease (CVD) health profiles of any occupation. The goal of this study was to determine if police officers in the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) Study (between 2004 and 2009) had a more adverse CV profile than the general U.S. employed population. Nearly one-half (46.9%) of the officers worked a non-day shift compared to 9% of U.S. workers. The percent of officers with depression was nearly double (12.0% vs. 6.8%) and officers were nearly four times more likely to sleep less than six hours in a 24-hour period than the general population (33.0% vs. 8.0%). A higher percentage of officers were obese (40.5% vs. 32.1%), had the metabolic syndrome (26.7% vs. 18.7%), and had higher mean serum total cholesterol levels (200.8 mg/dL vs. 193.2 mg/dL) than the comparison employed populations. In addition to having higher levels of traditional CVD risk factors, police officers had higher levels of non-traditional CVD risk factors. These findings highlight the need for expanding the definition of a health disparity to include occupation. Future studies should expand this comparison to additional traditional and non-traditional CVD risk factors and to other occupational groups. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Cardiovascular Diseases Cardiovascular System Emergency Responders Energy Metabolism Law Enforcement Men Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Shift Work Schedule Sleep Sleep Initiation And Maintenance Disorders Women

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• Keywords:
  Age-groups Author Keywords: Law Enforcement Cardiovascular-system Cardiovascular-system-disease Cardiovascular-system-disorders Cardiovascular Disease Emergency-responders Epidemiology Health Disparity Humans Law-enforcement-workers Metabolism Police-officers Risk-factors Risk Factors Shift-work Shift-workers Sleep-deprivation Sleep-disorders Stress Weight-factors

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• ISSN:
  1522-4821
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant ; Contract
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  HELD - Health Effects Laboratory Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  211-220
• Volume:
  13
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041206
• Citation:
  Int J Emerg Mental Health 2011 Oct; 13(4):211-220
• Email:
  THartley@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• NORA Priority Area:
  Public Safety
• Performing Organization:
  State University of New York at Buffalo
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20100901
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Emergency Mental Health
• End Date:
  20150831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:539f540369e84323752343683b669430197ab8400d1980509cf00f8b52ff9dc3d99248ab0b6194eaddd3c61699c8026241b345ffac838aa71a12bf1fd8e34856
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193816/cdc_193816_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 298.50 KB ]