A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVEL AND PREVALENCE OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AMONG TEACHING AND NON-TEACHING STAFF OF A SOUTH-WESTERN UNIVERSITY IN NIGERIA
Keywords:
High blood pressure, physical activity, prevalence, teaching staff, non-teaching staff, universityAbstract
High-blood-pressure (HBP) is a silent-killer and physical-activity is one its modifiable-risk-factors. This study assessed and compared physical-activity-level (PAL) and HBP-prevalence among teaching-and non-teaching-staff, University of Lagos. A cross-sectional-descriptive-study-design was used to select 952-respondents. An adapted pre-tested-version of WHO-STEPwise-questionnaire and Global-Physical-Activity-Questionnaire was used to collect respondents’ data. HBP was defined as systolic-blood-pressure of ≥140mmHg and/or a diastolic-blood-pressure of ≥90mmHg. Data were significant at p < 0.05. Teaching-and non-teaching-staff-ages were 49±8.56 and 42±9.40 years, respectively. HBP-prevalence: teaching (18.9%); non-teaching (18.1%). PAL-status: insufficiently-physically-active: teaching (96.4%), non-teaching (89.3%); physically-active: teaching (3.6%), non-teaching (10.7%). Trekked ≥3times/week: teaching (38.7%); non-teaching (59.2%); vigorous-intensity-activity (VIA): teaching (3.8%); non-teaching (11.0%); moderate-intensity-activity (MIA): teaching (29.0%), non-teaching (26.1%). Time-spent VIA ≥75mins: teaching (3.6%), non-teaching (12.0%); MIA ≥150mins: teaching (9.2%), non-teaching (9.5%). Sitting-hrs ≤30 mins/day before standing-up: teaching (3.6%), non-teaching (12.6%). Physically-active with HBP: teaching (29.4%), non-teaching (15.7%); Insufficiently-physically-active with HBP: teaching (18.5%), non-teaching (18.4%). Trekking-frequency was significantly-associated with HBP among teaching-staff while frequency and duration of recreational-activities were associated with HBP among non-teaching-staff (p≤0.05). Odds of having HBP among non-teaching-staff decreased with trekking (OR = 0.60; 95% CI: (0.36 - 0.99); p=0.049).
High physical-inactivity and HBP existed among respondents. Health-education and awareness on physical-activity and HBP are important among these respondents.
