An assessment of cardiovascular health risks in people working from home during the pandemic period: PANDEV-KALP study

ABSTRACT

Background and Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic had multi-faceted impacts on the working population who had to adapt to working from home (WFH). WFH has been reported to increase the rate of depression and anxiety due to social isolation;however, the cardiovascular effects of WFH are not well known yet. We aimed to assess the effects of WFH on cardiovascular risk factors and health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method(s) Companies that employ WFH were invited to study by occupational health specialists via respective human resources departments. WFH employees were sent an online self-reported questionnaire which included demographics, WFH conditions, medical history, new complaints during the pandemic, health behaviors during and before the pandemic, and COVID-19 exposure. Participants were also asked to provide data on blood pressure, blood glucose, and lipid levels before and during the pandemic. Data collection started in January 2022 and ended in July 2022. Two hundred forty- five participants were invited, 208 completed the questionnaire (response rate 84%), and 61 provided biological data (response rate 25%). Result(s) Demographic data are presented in Table 1. Regarding WFH, 72 (34.6%) participants had undergone training for WFH conditions, and 87 (41.8%) were able to give regular breaks. Weekly working hours have increased by 6 hours during the pandemic (49.6+/-13.8 vs. 43.8+/-12.1, p=0.001, t-test). Participants reported a median 7.5-point satisfaction regarding WFH on a 10-point scale. One hundred-twelve (53.8%) participants had a new complaint;the most common complaints were weight gain/increased appetite (73, 35.1%), insomnia/anxiety (58, 27.9%), and physical inactivity/musculoskeletal pain (38, 18.3%). One hundred-twenty (57.7%) participants had a weight increase, an increase in median BMI (p=0.001, Wilcoxon signed-rank test), and a shift toward pre-obesity was observed (p=0.001, chi-square test, Table 2). Most participants did not have changes in tobacco or alcohol consumption or exercise during the pandemic. Seventy-nine (37.9%) participants had a history of COVID-19 infection, and 165 (79.3%) had a relative infected with COVID-19. Data from the biological data subgroup did not show significant changes in blood pressure, blood glucose, or lipid levels. Conclusion(s) WFH adversely affected modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, and was associated with weight gain, increased work hours, caused a lack of workload planning, and increased anxiety. Previous observational studies have reported increased sedentary behavior, alcohol and food intake, and weight gain. This study adds to the literature that although risk factors are adversely affected by WFH conditions, workers were satisfied with WFH. The training rate regarding WFH conditions was low in our study;therefore, we believe WFH workers must be informed about WFH conditions, and occupational health specialists should focus on reducing specific risk factors that exist during WFH. (Table Presented).