Investigating The Impact Of Meat Consumption On Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors In Firefighter
Date
2022-05
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Each day, firefighters are exposed to unique occupational hazards that put them
at an increased risk for CVD development. Diet can play an important role in the
management of CVD, yet there is very little research published that studies firefighters’
dietary patterns. A longitudinal cohort study examining risk factors for injury in both
career and volunteer firefighters (“A prospective evaluation of health behavior risk for
injury among firefighters” EMW-2007-FP-02571) in the International Association of
Fire Chief’s (IAFC) Missouri Valley region collected demographic and health
characteristic data from over 700 career firefighters. Participants were asked to complete a Block Dietary Screener that determined the frequency at which each individual consumed specific meat products. One-way ANCOVAs were conducted between each dietary question and an outcome variable (BMI, BF%, WC, DBP, SBP, TG, HDL, LDL, Total Cholesterol, and TG/HDL). Spearman correlations were run to determine the proper covariates for each model. There was a significant relationship found between HDL levels and consumption of cold cuts, lunchmeat, and ham with a p=.010, F(4,337)=3.406. The ratio of TG/HDL was also found to be significant with consumption of cold cuts, lunchmeat, and ham with p=.019, F(4,326)=3.003. The present findings reinforce the need for further research into the dietary patterns of
firefighters in order to best protect them against CVD development.
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Keywords
Firefighters, Diet, Cardiovascular disease