A Cross-Sectional Study of Health Profile of IT Professionals in Goa

  • Preksha P Vernekar PG Student, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Goa Medical College, Goa, India.
  • Kalyani S PG Student, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Goa Medical College, Goa, India.
  • Jagadish A Cacodcar Professor and Head, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Goa Medical College, Goa, India.
Keywords: Goa, Health Profile, Information Technology, IT Professionals

Abstract

Background: Keeping in mind, the increasing burden of health problems among professionals working in IT industry and lack of evidence on health status of IT Employees in Goa, the present research study was undertaken.

Aim: To study the health profile of workers employed in selected IT companies in the largest industrial estate of Goa.

Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study was a retrospective, record-based study conducted over a period of 2 months. Data was obtained from the records of an Occupational Health Service (OHS) centre after assuring confidentiality. The variables of study comprised sociodemographic data (age, sex), anthropometry (height, weight), vitals (pulse, blood pressure), vision (near, far and colour) and basic blood/urine laboratory investigations and ECG readings. Data was entered into Excel spreadsheet and analysed using SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data.

Results: Mean age of the employees was 38.91±7.80 years (79.7% males and 20.3% females). 33.9% were overweight and 6.8% were obese. 11% had diabetes and 31.4% had hypertension. The proportion of patients having pre-hypertension, prediabetes was 42.2% and 2.5% respectively. 36.4% had dyslipidaemia of which 30.5% were having hypercholesterolemia and 5.9% were having hypertriglyceridemia.

Conclusion: This study highlights the need of periodic medical check-ups of the IT professionals for timely detection and early management of health problems.

References

Indian Equity Brand Foundation. Indian IT & ITeS Industry Report (March, 2019), India. Available from:

https://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-iT-and-iTeSindustry-analysis-presentation.

Williams B, Mancia G, Spiering W et al. 2018 ESC/ESH Guidelines for the management of arterial

hypertension. European Heart Journal 2018; 39(33): 3021-3104.

American Diabetes Association. Standards of medical care in diabetes‑2018. Diabetes Care 2018; 41 Suppl

: S13‑27.

World Health Organization. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO

Consultation. World Health Organization, Geneva, 2000 (WHO Technical Report Series, No. 894).

National CE. Third report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) expert panel on detection,

evaluation, and treatment of high blood cholesterol in adults (Adult Treatment Panel III) final report.

Circulation 2002; 106(25): 3143-3421.

Pappachan MJ. Increasing prevalence of lifestyle diseases: high time for action. Indian J Med Res 2011;

(2): 143-145.

Limaye TY, Kulkarni RL, Deokar MR et al. High prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors in young employees of Information Technology industry. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2016; 20(1): 64-67.

Reddy KS, Prabhakaran D, Chaturvedi V et al. Methods for establishing a surveillance system for cardiovascular

diseases in Indian industrial populations. Bull World Health Organ 2006; 84(6): 461‑469.

Padma V, Anand NN, Gurukul SM et al. Health problems and stress in Information Technology and Business

Process Outsourcing employees. J Pharm Bioallied Sci 2015; 7 Suppl 1: S9-13.

Gupta R, Agrawal A, Misra A et al. Metabolic cardiovascular risk factors worsen continuously across

the spectrum of body mass index in Asian Indians. Indian Heart J 2012; 64(3): 236-244.

World Health Organization. Obesity and Overweight, Fact Sheet No. 311. September 2006.

Published
2019-12-17