title: Coronary heart disease risk in volunteer firefighters in Victoria, Australia.
abstract: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major problem for firefighters, even when considering the healthy worker effect (HWE). Although volunteer firefighters outnumber paid personnel, previous research has focused on paid US firefighters. By contrast, no CHD data for Australian firefighters exist. Risk factor data were collected from 2,943 Australian volunteer firefighters and CHD risk was compared with reference "low-risk" and Australian population data. Predicted CHD risk for male and female firefighter was 19.2% and 5.1%, respectively. Female firefighters high blood pressure and fasting glucose was significantly lower than the general population, whereas all other risk factors was similar to the general population. Firefighters' CHD risk was greater than other volunteer and paid emergency services, but the prevalence for most risk factors was similar to the general population. Therefore, Australian volunteer firefighters may not benefit from the HWE.
authors.affiliation: a Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research , Deakin University , Burwood , Australia.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wolkow
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Netto
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Langridge
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nichols
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sergeant
authors.forename: Brad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aisbett
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001786:Blood Glucose; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D061388:Firefighters / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015989:Healthy Worker Effect; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology; D014838:Volunteers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D008055:Lipids