Evaluating Blood Pressure and Hypertension Awareness in Municipal Workers in the Southeast US

The primary purpose of this study was to describe municipal workers’ blood pressure (BP) status and awareness; the secondary purpose was to examine the association between BP misconception and department. Municipal employees in a southeastern rural community (n=75) were asked to participate in a 15-minute survey, including the BASIS Hypertension Awareness survey, and blood pressure measurements to determine hypertension risk. Results show a significant difference in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) between police with a higher DBP of 87.64 ± 10.9 mm Hg and fire departments 78.98 ± 11.1 mm Hg (p=0.005), a significant difference in DBP between city hall/public works with a DBP of 86.47 ± 7.8 mm Hg and the lower DBP of the fire department of 78.98 ± 11.1 mm Hg (p=0.039), and a significant difference in total BASIS score between city hall/public works with a higher score of 4.58 ± 2.4 compared to the police department score of 3.01 ± 1.4 (p=0.017). It is recommended that lifestyle changes are utilized with municipal workers to manage blood pressure and improve blood pressure awareness such as regular BP testing, dietary changes, consistent physical activity, reducing physical inactivity, sleeping 6-8 hours per night, and limiting occupational stress