Firefighters and on-duty deaths from coronary heart disease: a case control study

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Environ Health
• Personal Author:
  Kales, Stefanos N ; Soteriades, Elpidoforos S ; Christoudias, Stavros G ; Christiani, David C
• Description:
  Background ; Coronary heart disease (CHD) is responsible for 45% of on-duty deaths among United States firefighters. We sought to identify occupational and personal risk factors associated with on-duty CHD death. ; Methods ; We performed a case-control study, selecting 52 male firefighters whose CHD deaths were investigated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. We selected two control populations: 51 male firefighters who died of on-duty trauma; and 310 male firefighters examined in 1996/1997, whose vital status and continued professional activity were re-documented in 1998. ; Results ; The circadian pattern of CHD deaths was associated with emergency response calls: 77% of CHD deaths and 61% of emergency dispatches occurred between noon and midnight. Compared to non-emergency duties, fire suppression (OR = 64.1, 95% CI 7.4–556); training (OR = 7.6, 95% CI 1.8–31.3) and alarm response (OR = 5.6, 95% CI 1.1–28.8) carried significantly higher relative risks of CHD death. Compared to the active firefighters, the CHD victims had a significantly higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in multivariate regression models: age ≥ 45 years (OR 6.5, 95% CI 2.6–15.9), current smoking (OR 7.0, 95% CI 2.8–17.4), hypertension (OR 4.7, 95% CI 2.0–11.1), and a prior diagnosis of arterial-occlusive disease (OR 15.6, 95% CI 3.5–68.6). ; Conclusions ; Our findings strongly support that most on-duty CHD fatalities are work-precipitated and occur in firefighters with underlying CHD. Improved fitness promotion, medical screening and medical management could prevent many of these premature deaths.
• Subjects:
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Coronary Disease
  • Fires
  • Humans
  • Hypertension
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Occupational Diseases
  • Occupational Health
  • Prevalence
  More +
• Source:
  Environ Health. 2003; 2:14.
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  OH03729/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States
• Corporate as Subject:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (U.S.)
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/30982/cdc_30982_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 442.59 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:363416845cf7318dee2db6c12d77a8a4401d59dba8b01e25ef693015963cee8e