Prevalence and associated factors of dyslipidaemia among university workers in Southeast Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The job one does for a living may increase ones propensity to cardiovascular diseases due to many associated risk factors. University staff may be at high risk of dyslipidaemia, a major cardiovascular disease risk factor. This study assessed prevalence of dyslipidaemia and its associated factors among the staff of University of Nigeria, Nsukka campus, Nigeria. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of 386 workers selected through a 4-stage sampling technique was conducted. Data were obtained through questionnaire and lipid profile determination. Bivariate analysis using Cochran and Mantel-Haenszel test was used to determine associations between dyslipidaemia and selected variables. Odds ratios and significance at p < 0.05 were reported. RESULTS: Respondents who were 46 years and above accounted for 51.3 % while 95.3 % had tertiary education. Administrative/technical staff were 76.4 % while academic staff were only 23.6 %; 73.8 % were senior staff and 26.2 % were junior staff. More than half (60.4 %) consumed alcohol above recommendation. Lipid biomarkers of the workers were not sex dependent (p > 0.05). Few (23.4 and 6.5 %) of the respondents had borderline high and high total cholesterol values, respectively. Whereas none (0.0 %) had low high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), borderline low values were observed among 1.3 %. High low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) affected 1.3 %. Triglyceride was high among 3.9 %; 20.8 % had high atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) and 2.6 % had impaired fasting blood glucose (IFBG). Dyslipidaemia had a prevalence of 54.5 % with female dominance. Hypercholesterolemia with high LDL-c was the commonest combined dyslipidaemia observed (7.8 %). Dyslipidaemia was dependent on hypercholesterolemia (OR = 0.352, 95 % C.I.=0.245–0.505), high LDL-c (OR = 0.462, 95 % C.I.=0.355-0.600) and hypertriglyceridemia (OR = 0.462, 95 % C.I.=0.355-0.600). Alcohol intake above normal was associated with almost 6 times higher risk of dyslipidaemia (OR = 5.625, 95 % C.I.=1.062–29.799). CONCLUSIONS: Dyslipidaemia is a problem among the workers with hypercholesterolemia in combination with high LDL-c and hypertriglyceridemia compounding the problem. Nutrition education and physical activity are advocated to prevent cardiovascular events among the university staff.