Occupational Characteristics and Working Hours of Stroke and Myocardial Infarction Patients at a Hospital in Bangkok: A Descriptive Study
Keywords:
overwork, cerebrovascular disease, cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, occupational disease, long working hoursAbstract
Objective The aim of this study was to investigate occupational risk factors, particularly focusing on working hours, in the patients with cerebrovascular diseases and cardiovascular diseases to help reduce the incidence of those diseases in the future.
Methods This descriptive study was conducted retrospectively. Patients age 18 to 65 with a first diagnosis of acute stroke and acute myocardial infarction in the years 2019 to 2022 were included. Demographic data were obtained from in-patient records. Occupational data, including working hours and other missing data, were obtained through telephone interviews with the patients.
Results After excluding individuals who were unemployed at the time of the disease incident, deceased, unwilling or unreachable to participate, a total of 146 patients were included in this study. Of those, 115 participants (78.8%) were first diagnosed with acute stroke and 31 participants (21.2%) were first diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction during the study period. The median and interquartile range of weekly working hours of all participants, participants with acute stroke, and participants with acute myocardial infarction were 56 (25), 56 (35), and 59 (27) hours per week,
respectively. The range of working hours per week was from 4 to 112 hours. The majority of participants reported not engaging in dangerous work as defined by Thailand’s Ministry of Labour, reported no significant occupational hazards, stated they had minimal stress and that they had control over their own job.
Conclusions The results indicate that the majority of stroke and myocardial infarction patients from this center worked ≥ 55 hours per week. Although the majority reported having no significant occupational factors, recognizing and incorporating a history of occupational factors could be beneficial in disease diagnosis, disease prevention, prevention of recurrence, and aiding the return-to-work process of the patients.
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