Correlation between occupational high temperature exposure and dyslipidemia in steel workers

Background The occupational high temperature environment makes steel workers more susceptible to chronic diseases, and the influence of high temperature on diseases is attracting more and more attention.

Objective This study evaluates the relationship between cumulative high temperature exposure and dyslipidemia, providing a scientific basis for the prevention and control of dyslipidemia in steel workers.

Methods A cross-sectional study was adopted to select 6 107 front-line employees of a steel group in Tangshan with occupational health examination reports from April to June 2017. Among them, 5 977 workers participated in the physical examination and questionnaire survey, and the response rate was 97.87%. After excluding those aged >60 years and with incomplete questionnaire data and biochemical data, 5 807 steel workers were finally included in the study, and the effective recovery rate was 95.09%. Data were collected through questionnaire survey, physical examination, laboratory examination, and surveillance plan of occupational exposure in workplace. High temperature exposure data were derived from the workplace high temperature test reports following the Measurement of physical agents in workplace Part 7: high temperature (GBZ/T 189.7—2007). The cumulative exposure measurement (CEM) of high temperature was calculated based on wet-bulb global temperature and the working time schedule related to high temperature exposure. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) and mutiple logistic regression model were used to explore the relationship between cumulative high temperature exposure and dyslipidemia.

Results Among the 5 807 steel workers, the prevalence of dyslipidemia was 38.11%. After adjusting for selected confounders, the results of the RCS model showed a linear dose-response relationship between cumulative high temperature exposure and dyslipidemia (χ²=11.88, P=0.002 6 for overall association test; χ²=1.70, P=0.192 9 for nonlinear test). After adjusting for age, sex, income per capita, education, family history of hypertension, smoking, alcohol drinking, dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) score, sleeping time, physical activity level, hypertension, diabetes, body mass index (BMI), hyperuricemia, shift work, and exposures to noise, dust, and CO, the results of multiple logistic regression model showed that compared with the steel workers with CEM exposure < 477.97℃ ·year, the risks of dyslipidemia of the steel workers with CEM exposure >653.04 and >782.82℃ ·year were 1.362 (OR=1.362, 95%CI: 1.086-1.709) and 1.333 (OR=1.333, 95%CI: 1.048-1.694) times higher.

Conclusion There is a linear dose-response relationship between cumulative high temperature exposure and dyslipidemia of steel workers. As the cumulative exposure to high temperature increases, the risk of dyslipidemia in steel workers increases.