Health Risks of Cardiovascular diseases in Teachers

Overview

The purpose of this project was to identify persons with increased risk of cardiovascular disease:
teachers from Pragueelementary schools suffering from increased cardiovascular system reaktivity, arterial hypertension greater susceptibility to occu-pational mental load and other cardiovascular disease risk faktors. Specific intervention for decreasing cardiovascular disease riskwas prepared for selected subjects. The project likewise monitored relationships between specific cardiovascular disease riskfaktors and other factors such as behavioural type, personality traints, attitudes, occupational and other influences. Our resultsrevealed a high incidence of cardiovascular disease risk factors in our sample: arterial hypertension (31.6%), excenssive weight(43%), hypercholesterolaemia (35.3%), smoking (43%) and insufficient physical activity. The teachers taking part in the study weresubjected to a high degree of mental load, a large percentage of subjects exhibited risk factor behaviour and attitudes (32.5%) anda high degree if both occupational and general frustration (40%). Younger subjects reacted poorly to mental load and theiremotional reactions tended to be pessimistic/depresive. Evaluation of the relationships between selected blood pressure andcoronary factor indicators and specific risk factors confirmed increased cardiovascular system reaktivity (particularly diastolicblood pressure and coronary factors) in persons in the increased risk category.

Key words:
cardiovascular reactivity, teachers, intervention, long-term mental load, risk factors, risk factor behaviour