Health screening among pharmacists in a teaching hospital in south-western Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Routine health screening is very vital and should be done regularly for early disease diagnosis, which is a major factor in disease progression.
Objectives: To assess the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, overweight and obesity and to evaluate risk factors for diabetes or hypertension.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted among 63 pharmacists in the Department of Pharmacy, University College Hospital, Ibadan, using a pretested questionnaire. The study lasted for three months. Participants’ blood pressure, blood glucose and anthropometric measurements were determined using appropriate methods. Data was analyzed for descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 20 at p ≤ 0.05.
Results: The response rate was 94.0 % (63/67). The prevalence of overweight, obesity, hypertension, prediabetes and diabetes were 42.9 %, 30.2 %, 15.9 %, 7.9 % and 1.6 % respectively. Most of the hypertensive participants were not aware of this prior to the study. Majority of the participants engaged in regular intake of fruits and vegetables,
however, a lot of them (28; 49.5 %) were involved in consumption of sugar-based drinks. Their mean sleeping hours was 6.2 ± 1.0.
Conclusions: The health screening was done to assess prevalence of overweight, obesity and hypertension. There is need to create awareness for the necessity of regular medical checkup as well as avoidance of risk factors for diabetes mellitus and hypertension among the participants.

Keywords: Hypertension, diabetes, obesity, health screening, risk factors, pharmacists