Journal of Occupational Health and Epidemiology

en Prevalence of Hypertension and Perceived Stress among University Employees in Solapur, India (2022) Epidemiology Original Article <div style="text-align: justify;">Background: Stress is an important psychosocial factor responsible for the hypertension. Globally, university employees reported a high prevalence of hypertension, and perceived stress; however, in Indian context, as few studies documented this association, we conducted a study documenting the prevalence of hypertension and perceived stress among employees of Solapur University. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during June – September 2022 to screen 231 university employees for hypertension following International Society of Hypertension guidelines. Perceived psychological stress was assessed with Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale. Chi-square test and both univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to evaluate the hypotheses. The significance level for the p-value was set at ≤0.05, and statistical analysis was conducted using Stata 12.1.  Results: The overall prevalence of hypertension was 39%. More than half of employees (54%) were under moderate to high levels of stress, and they were more likely to be hypertensive than those under low stress. Staff with more than 30 years and in non-teaching posts were about two times more at higher risk of hypertension, and male staff, and those having moderate to high-stress levels were 2.5 times more likely associated with the risk of hypertension as compared to others. Conclusions: University employees are under high levels of stress which are prone to developing hypertension. There is a need to screen more and more Indian university employees for the presence of hypertension and stress to design appropriate hypertension prevention programmes.</div> Hypertension,Stress,Prevalence,Prevention,Employees,India, 166 173 http://johe.rums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-729-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Abhijeet Jagtap orthodoxj@gmail.com 22400319475328460012110 22400319475328460012110 No Ph.D. in Health Sciences, Dept. of Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, India. Savitribai Phule Pune University Uma Mahajan umasmahajan@gmail.com 22400319475328460012111 22400319475328460012111 No Ph.D. in Statistics, Dept. of Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, India. Savitribai Phule Pune University Abhay Kudale abhay.kudale@gmail.com 22400319475328460012112 22400319475328460012112 Yes Assistant Prof., Dept. of Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, India. Savitribai Phule Pune University