Evaluation of occupational and non-occupational physical activity in acute coronary syndrome patients admitted in emergency heart center of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

  Physical  inactivity  is  an  important  risk  factor  for  ischemic  heart  disease  (IHD).  This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between occupational and non-occupational physical activity with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and its risk factors in patients admitted in an emergency heart center.

227 male patients of ACS were randomly selected in an academic hospital. A questionnaire including individual, medical and occupational history was used for data collection. Occupational, sport and leisure time physical activity was evaluated by Baecke questionnaire. The studied population divided into mild, moderate and severe activity groups based on index of Baecke questionnaire.

The prevalence of the risk factors of IHD, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, obesity and smoking, was 32, 18.5, 19, 11, and 34.4 percent respectively. Among risk factors of IHD only obesity and diabetes had significant relationship with occupational physical activity and dyslipidemia had significant relationship with both sports activity and occupational physical activity. While other risk factors of IHD and physical activity revealed no statistically significant relationship.

The results of this study showed that most of ACS patients admitted in the emergency heart center had mild to moderate occupational and non-occupational physical activity. Although the researchers couldn’t find a statistically significant relationship between occupational physical activity and ACS, but sports activity and leisure time physical activity can be effective in prevention of IHDs with decrease in risk factor prevalence of these diseases, specially diabetes and dyslipidemia.