Background: Police work generally recognized as a most stressful and dangerous occupation. Despite of sufficient physical activity most police worker is suffering from overweight or obesity. There is a scarcity of knowledge regarding prevalence of obesity in police worker in India. This study was conducted to assess the lifestyle-related health problems of the police personnel.
Objectives: To assess the prevalence of generalized and abdominal obesity (AO) in police worker and to see the association of obesity with nature and duration of service.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational study conducted on 245 police personnel working at provincial armed constabulary, Sitapur. After informed consent demographic data of individuals such as age, duration of service, nature of duties, and types of foods were recorded. Anthropometric parameters were measured using standardized techniques. Available data analyze using Chi-square test to see significance of association with different variables.
Result: In this study, the mean age of individual was 40.34 ± 8.23 and mean duration of service was 23.29 ± 8.49. Majority (95.92%) of police worker were involved in field or shift duty and only 4.08% of individual involved in office work, 77.14% of individuals were having generalized obesity and 82.04% were having AO. According to the duration of service majority of the individuals were obese and their association with AO was highly significant (P = 0.004). Nature of job showed that 82.31% of individuals having AO related to field or shift and there association was not significant.
Conclusion: Effective implementation of a physical fitness program, a regular balanced diet, inoculation of training for managing stress can improve the life of police personnel and make them less prone to be obese and related disorder. Health checkup should be made mandatory to avoid their negligent behavior and early detection of lifestyle-related disorder.
Key words: Police Personnel; Generalized Obesity; Abdominal Obesity; Body Mass Index; Waist Circumference
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