Hypertension and firefighting
WorkSafeBC Evidence-Based Practice Group, Martin CW
Record ID 32018015238
English
Authors' objectives:
To determine whether there is any evidence to support the (causal) association between being a firefighter (of any type) and having hypertension.
Authors' results and conclusions:
The literature searches identified two hundred twenty-seven published studies. Upon examination of the titles and abstracts of these 227 studies, 10 studies were thought to be relevant and were retrieved in full for further appraisals. Twelve further studies were identified and retrieved as the results of manual searches. Overall, 22 studies were retrieved in full in this systematic review. Of the 22 studies that were retrieved in full, 17 studies did not provide any relevant data or were not relevant to the objective of this systematic review and will not be discussed further. At present, the evidence on the association of being a firefighter and developing hypertension is, at best, conflicting. It should be noted that the available evidence must be interpreted with caution since bias (especially on the potential of selection and misclassification biases), role of confounders (especially on the effect of smoking) and role of chance (due to multiple comparisons) cannot be excluded from affecting the reported association. It should also be noted that heterogeneity in the definition of hypertension employed in the available epidemiological studies is significant. Given the available data, at present, it is not possible to establish a causal association, as described by Sir Bradford Hill, on being a firefighter and developing hypertension.
Authors' methods:
A comprehensive and systematic literature search was conducted on July 22, 2025. The search was done on commercial medical literature databases where a combination of key words was employed in this search. No limitation, such as on the language or date of publication, was implemented in any of these searches. Manual searches, on the references of the articles that were retrieved in full, were also undertaken.
Details
Project Status:
Completed
URL for project:
https://www.worksafebc.com/en/about-us/research-services/evidence-based-medicine-and-systematic-reviews
Year Published:
2025
English language abstract:
An English language summary is available
Publication Type:
Mini HTA
Country:
Canada
MeSH Terms
- Hypertension
- Firefighters
- Blood Pressure
- Occupational Diseases
Keywords
- firefighter
- firefighting
- hypertension
- high blood pressure
Contact
Organisation Name:
WorkSafeBC
Contact Address:
6591 Westminster Highway, Richmond, BC, V7C 1C6 Canada. Tel: 604-231-8417; Fax: 604-279-7698
Contact Name:
ebpg@worksafebc.com
Contact Email:
ebpg@worksafebc.com
Copyright:
WorkSafe BC
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.