Background: The cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The aim of present study was to determine prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and metabolic syndrome among military parachutists in Iran.
Materials and methods: In a cross-sectional study on 96 military parachutists, arterial blood pressure, weight, height, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, fasting blood glucose, and lipid profile were assessed and then the rate of metabolic syndrome was evaluated.
Results: Mean age was 37.4 years. Totally, 24 (25%) parachutists fulfilled the criteria of hypertension, while 36 (37.5%) exhibited blood pressure in the range of pre-hypertension. Five (5.2%) cases suffered from diabetes mellitus and 4 (4.2%) were pre-diabetics. Hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia was seen in 23 (24%) and 46 (47%) participants, respectively. The rate of metabolic syndrome based on ATP III and IDF criteria was 5.2% (5 cases) and 13.5% (13 cases), respectively.
Conclusions: Although war-related stressors and high intensity physical activities are associated with both acute cardiac events and cardiac risk factors, our data is in favor of lower frequency of cardiovascular risk factors among military parachutists. However, routine monitoring of military parachutists is necessary to find the cardiovascular risk factors.