Cross-sectional Study of Heat Stress and Blood Pressure Among Quarry Workers in Bukit Mertajam

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted on quarry workers located in Bukit Mertajam. The objective of this study was to study the exposure to heat and blood pressure of quarry workers. A total of 38 employees was selected as respondents in this study. The variables studied were the Heat stress index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, duration of work and heat exposure time. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between work duration and heat stress where the p = 0.564 values exceeded the alpha value of 0.05. The study also found that there was no significant relationship between heat exposure and heat stress with p=0.639 and above the alpha value 0.05. The results showed that the heat exposure period had a significant relationship between heat exposure and systolic blood pressure (p = 0.001) where this value was less than alpha 0.05 but there was no significant relationship between heat exposure and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.295) where this value exceeds p = 0.05. Correlation analysis of Heat Stress with systolic and diastolic blood pressure showed that there was no significant relationship where the Heat Stress value with systolic blood pressure was r = 0.037, p = 0.825 while sig Heat pressure with blood diastolic pressure was r = 0.236, p = 0.153, where both values exceed the alpha value of 0.05. Heat can respond to the human body due to environmental and non-environmental factors.