Factors Associated with the Occurrence of Arterial Hypertension in Industry Workers of State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract Background Hypertension is a serious and persistent public health problem and is one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases and general mortality. Objectives This study aimed to verify the prevalence and factors associated with systemic arterial hypertension in workers from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Methods This is a cross-sectional study using the secondary data from 20,792 industry workers from 18 to 59 years of age. The presence of arterial hypertension was determined from systolic blood pressure ≥ 140mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90mmHg or taking antihypertensive medication. Factors investigated included demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, nutritional status, and family history characteristics. Poisson regression was used in multivariate analysis, adopting a significance level of p