A Policeman’s Lot is Not a Healthy One

It’s well known that police officers have a higher risk of heart disease than people in most other occupations. And, in spite of the title of this piece, it’s not just the men who are at increased risk, according to studies reported in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and to be published in Psychiatry Research.

In the first study, 312 police officers were compared with 318 members of the general population, regarding the health of their carotid arteries. All participants were free of overt cardiovascular disease. Measurement of the carotid artery intima-media thickness was done as an indicator of possible sub-clinical cardiovascular disease.

The police officers had more or higher levels of age-adjusted cardiovascular disease risk factors – blood pressure, total cholesterol, and smoking. After adjusting the carotid artery results for these differences, police officers had increased average common carotid intima-media thickness, and increased maximum carotid intima-media thickness as well. In other words, police officers have increased levels of atherosclerosis than the general population, which is not fully explained by the increased cardiovascular risk factors they also had. The authors suggest, therefore, that “law enforcement work may increase cardiovascular risk”.

The second study examined the role of the stress hormone, cortisol, in police officers. Female police officers were found to have high levels of cortisol throughout the working day, when normally it is high in the morning and then decreases to its lowest in the evening. The constantly high levels were associated with decreased arterial elasticity, according to the author of the study. This disrupted cortisol regulation is indicative of chronic stress, and the lessened arterial elasticity is a risk factor for heart disease.

Police, fire-fighters, mountain rescuers, and the military all deserve our thanks for risking their lives and their cardiac health for us. For our part, we must support research into what can be done to reduce severe job-related stress, in particular that resulting in accelerated atherosclerosis.