Workplace health promotion: Assessing the cardiopulmonary risks of the construction workforce in Hong Kong
Tin S.P.P. Lam W.W.T. Yoon S. Zhang N. Xia N. Zhang W. Ma K. Fielding R.
Tin S.P.P.
Lam W.W.T.
Zhang N.
Xia N.
Zhang W.
Ma K.
Fielding R.
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Alternative Title
Abstract
Objective Health needs of different employee subgroups within an industry can differ. We report the results of a workplace cardiopulmonary risk assessment targeting workers and support staff in the construction industry. Methods A free worksite-based cardiopulmonary risk assessment for 1,903 workers on infrastructural contracts across Hong Kong was initiated in May 2014. Cardiopulmonary risk screening was performed in 60-minute blocks for approximately 30 workers/block with individualized feedback and lifestyle counseling. Risk profiles stratified by occupational roles are differentiated using the %2-test for categorical and Student's t-test for continuous variables. Results Most construction workers and clerks/professionals were male (83.2% and 71.2%, respectively) and Chinese (78.7% and 90.9%, respectively). Construction workers were older (mean: 44.9 years, SD 11.5) and less well-educated (6.1% received tertiary education) than clerks/professionals (35.0 years, 10.7; 72.6% received tertiary education), but more likely to be hypertensive (22.6% vs. 15.4%, p<0.001), overweight/obese (71.7% vs. 56.6%, p<0.001), centrally obese (53.1% vs. 35.5%, p<0.001), and have undesirable levels of high-density lipoprotein (41.6% vs. 35.8%, p<0.05) and diabetic levels of non-fasting blood glucose (4.3% vs. 1.6%, p<0.05). Up to 12.6% of construction workers and 9.7% of office clerks/professions had three or more metabolic syndrome risk factors. While construction workers were more likely than clerks/professionals to be daily smokers, they reported better work-related physical activity and diet. Conclusions Simple worksite health risk screening can identify potentially high-cardiopulmonary-risk construction industry employee subgroups for onward confirmatory referral. Separate cardiopulmonary health promotion strategies that account for the varying lifestyle profiles of the two employee subgroups in the industry appear justified. � Tin 2016 et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords
glucose, high density lipoprotein, abdominal obesity, adult, Article, building industry, cardiopulmonary risk, construction worker, counseling, diabetes mellitus, dietary intake, educational status, female, glucose blood level, health hazard, health promotion, Hong Kong, human, lifestyle, major clinical study, male, metabolic syndrome X, occupational health, physical activity, risk assessment, risk factor, smoking habit, workplace, blood, feeding behavior, health promotion, Heart Diseases, hypertension, mass screening, obesity, procedures, questionnaire, risk assessment, statistics and numerical data, Adult, Construction Industry, Counseling, Feeding Behavior, Female, Health Promotion, Heart Diseases, Hong Kong, Humans, Hypertension, Life Style, Lipoproteins, HDL, Male, Mass Screening, Obesity, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Surveys and Questionnaires, Workplace
Source Title
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Series/Report No.
Collections
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
Date
2016
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0146286
Type
Article