Study of Changes in Blood Pressure and Lipid Profile in Professional Bus Drivers as an Impact of Stress

Buses were the main mode of public transport in urban areas. Driving a bus in urban area is a highly demanding job and requires lot of physical and mental stability to perform the task with minimal hazards. The bus drivers are under continuous stress during the working hours and are prone for many diseases related to changes induced by stress, especially the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The aim of our study is to estimate the blood pressure and lipid profile in bus drivers which are the markers of increased cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk resulting from stress. The study design was a cross sectional study. The study group is divided into two groups. Group A consists of 50 male subjects who were professional bus drivers and Group B consists of 50 male subjects who were in control group. Blood pressure was measured and blood lipid profile were estimated for both study and control groups, in fasting blood sample. The test was done in our Biochemistry lab by standard enzymatic technique CHOD-PAP, End point method. Statistical analysis was done using the student “t” test. There was statistically significant increase in systolic blood pressure (p < 0.05) and diastolic blood pressure (p < 0.001) in professional bus drivers compared to control. There was also a highly significant increase in Total cholesterol (p < 0.001), LDL-cholesterol (p < 0.001) and decrease in HDL-cholesterol level (p < 0.05) in bus drivers compared to controls. The study concludes that stress plays an important risk factor in professional bus drivers and can have cumulative effect to cause acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular event which can be fatal to the driver.