Doctoral Thesis
Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide and produces large productivity loss. The majority of CVD mortality could be prevented with changes in modifiable risk factors including tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and harmful use of alcohol. Successful behavioral prevention of CVD requires the identification of relevant target behaviors and reach of populations at risk. Presenteeism i.e. attending work while ill is discussed as a work-related risk factor for CVD. However, little is known about the interplay of presenteeism with established health risk behaviors. The first aim of this dissertation was to examine the association of presenteeism with health behaviors (study 1). The second aim was to examine factors that can enhance the public health impact of CVD prevention efforts. Therefore, the effect of recruitment strategy used on reach (study 2) and of communication channel used on intervention usage (study 3) was examined. Methods: Study 1 comprised data from 710 Australian employees aged 18 years and older who completed an online-survey. Linear regression analysis was used to examine the association of health behaviors (physical activity, work and non-work-related sitting time, sleep duration and sleep quality) with presenteeism. For study 2 individuals aged 40-65 years were invited to a two-stage cardio-preventive program including an on-site health screening and a cardiovascular examination program (CEP) using face-to-face recruitment in general practices (n = 671) and job centers (n = 1,049), and mail invitations from a health insurance company (n = 894). Recruitment strategies were compared regarding three aspects of reach: (1) participation rate, (2) participants’ characteristics i.e. socio-demographics, self-reported health and CVD risk factors, and (3) predictors of program participation. Study 3 compromised 16,948 users (aged 18 years and older) of the feely available physical activity promotion program 10,000 Steps. Users were grouped based on which platform (website, app) they logged their physical activity: Web-only, App-only, or Web-and-app. Groups were compared on socio-demographics, engagement parameters and logged physical activity. Non-usage attrition i.e. discontinued program usage over the first three months was examined using Kaplan-Meier survival curves. A Cox regression model was used to determine predictors of non-usage attrition. Results: Analyses from study 1 revealed that presenteeism was associated with poor sleep quality and suboptimal sleep duration after controlling for socio-demographics, work and health-related variables. Engaging in three health risk behaviors was associated with higher presenteeism compared with engaging in none or one. Study 2 showed screening participation rates of 56.0%, 32.8%, 23.5% for general practices, job centers and the health insurance company, respectively. Participation rate for the CEP among eligible individuals was 80.3%, 65.5%, and 96.1%, respectively. Job center clients showed the lowest socio-economic status and the most adverse CVD risk pattern. Whereas being female predicted screening participation across all strategies, higher age predicted screening participation only within individuals recruited via the health insurance company. Within general practices and job centers CEP participants were less likely to be smokers than non-participants. Study 3 revealed that engagement with the program was highest for Web-and-app users. Cox regression showed that user group predicted non-usage attrition: Web-and-app users (hazard ratio = 0.86; P < .001) and App-only users (hazard ratio = 0.63; P < .001) showed a reduced attrition risk compared to Web-only users. Further, older age, being male, being non-Australian, higher program engagement and higher number of steps logged were associated with reduced non-usage attrition risk. Conclusion: The results of this dissertation have three implications for designing CVD behavioral interventions with a high public health impact. First, employees suffering from presenteeism may require interventions addressing health risk behaviors including suboptimal sleep behaviors. Second, implementing prevention efforts in job centers may be especially useful to reduce health inequalities induced by social gradient. Third, the population impact of web-based interventions may be increased when using mobile delivery channels.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden Zusammenhänge zwischen Sexualhormonen/SHBG und einem breiten Spektrum kardiovaskulärer Risikofaktoren, Krankheiten und Mortalität in einer gesunden weiblichen Allgemeinbevölkerung in Nordostdeutschland untersucht. Krankheiten des Herz-Kreislaufsystems sind die häufigste Todesursache bei Frauen weltweit. Risikofaktoren für kardiovaskuläre Krankheiten schließen den Typ 2 Diabetes mellitus, Übergewicht, Hypertonie und Fettstoffwechselstörungen ein. Das gemeinsame Auftreten von definierten, multiplen und metabolischen Veränderungen wird als das Metabolische Syndrom bezeichnet. Zusätzlich weisen subklinische Veränderungen des kardiovaskulären Systems auf ein erhöhtes Risiko für klinisch manifestierte, kardiovaskuläre Krankheiten hin. Es wurden Daten der populationsbasierten longitudinalen Study of Health in Pomerania herangezogen und rund 2000 Frauen im Alter zwischen 20 und 79 Jahren analysiert. Um die Assoziation zwischen Sexualhormonen und kardiovaskulären Risikofaktoren sowie Mortalität zu untersuchen, wurden verschiedene multivariable Regressionsmodelle verwendet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die untersuchten Sexualhormone/SHBG mit verschiedenen klinischen Korrelaten wie zum Beispiel BMI, Blutdruck oder Lipoproteinen in Beziehung stehen. Außerdem konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass SHBG, unabhängig von relevanten Kofaktoren, mit prävalentem und inzidentem Metabolischem Syndrom sowie prävalentem Typ 2 Diabetes mellitus assoziiert ist. Es wurde kein unabhängiger Zusammenhang zwischen Sexualhormonen/SHBG mit inzidenten subklinischen oder klinischen kardiovaskulären Krankheiten oder der Mortalität gefunden. Die meisten dargestellten Ergebnisse bestätigen frühere internationale Studien und erweitern sie um den Aspekt der großen weiblichen Studienstichprobe. Für die zukünftige Forschung wäre es von großem Interesse, das prädiktive Potential von SHBG als Biomarker des Metabolischen Syndroms in anderen populationsbasierten bzw. patientenbasierten Studien zu bestätigen, um somit neue Biomarker für kardiovaskuläre Krankheiten zu etablieren. Zusammenfassend bekräftigen die durchgeführten Analysen die Hypothese, dass zunehmende Androgenisierung der Frau mit einem erhöhten kardiovaskulären Risiko einhergeht.
