Alcohol consumption, physical activity, and cad risk factors in firefighters

Abstract

Firefighting is a physically and psychologically stressful occupation, where firefighters often resort to alcohol use as a coping strategy. Firefighters are particularly vulnerable to alcohol misuse and alcohol disorders, negatively affecting their health, well-being and, possibly, work performance. Therefore, this study investigated the prevalence of alcohol consumption and its relationship with the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics, weekly physical activity, and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors. This study used a quantitative, cross-sectional and descriptive design. A total of 124 full-time firefighters, males and females, were conveniently recruited from the City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service, South Africa, between September to November, 2020. Firefighters were then separated according to sex, age, ethnicity, and CAD risk factors. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H were used to determine the statistical differences between groups, Kendall’s Tau was used to assess the correlation between ordinal and continuous variables, and Chi-square to assess the association between categorical variables. A p-value of less than 0.05 was used to indicate statistical significance.