Hypertension screening in a salami factory: a worksite hypertension study

The prevalence, awareness and control of hypertension are important epidemiological research topics worldwide. The screening of hypertension in a workplace has some special aspects. We have screened the employees in a Hungarian salami factory (Pick Salami Factory, Szeged, Hungary) for hypertensives. In a cross-sectional survey, the blood pressure (BP) was measured with an instrument meeting accepted measuring principles (BP-TRUTM BP) and a questionnaire was filled. In all, 1012 factory workers were screened (600 male and 412 female) and 25.7% of the workers proved to be hypertensives. Of these, 61.5% of the hypertensive employees were aware that their BP is high. Among the treated hypertensives, 21.9% were controlled. These results suggest that the efficacy of the management of hypertension in Hungary cannot be solely responsible for the high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The improvement of the management of hypertension should decrease the cardiovascular risk in the hypertensive population. The worksite screening and follow-up of hypertension seem to be logical health service solutions. This has been proven to be cost-effective.