Cardiovascular risk and occupational category among university staff in El Salvador: a cross-sectional study based on the Framingham score

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in middle-income countries and increasingly affect workers in the education sector, who are often exposed to sedentary routines, psychosocial stress and unhealthy habits. In this setting, academic and administrative university staff may accumulate multiple cardiometabolic risk factors, yet evidence from Central America remains scarce. This study describes the cardiometabolic profile and 10-year cardiovascular risk, estimated using the Framingham score, in 163 workers from a private university in El Salvador assessed in 2022, and explores differences by occupational category and sex. Personal history and health behaviours were collected through a structured questionnaire, and anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, fasting glucose and lipid profile were obtained, allowing a detailed characterisation of the risk pattern in this occupational group. The findings show a high burden of excess weight and abdominal adiposity: around one quarter of participants were overweight, nearly one third had obesity and more than four fifths fell within elevated or very high-risk waist circumference categories. Approximately six in ten workers presented blood pressure or fasting glucose values outside the normal range. Although most participants were classified as having low cardiovascular risk, the few high-risk cases were concentrated among male administrative staff, who also showed higher body mass index values. These results reveal an unfavourable cardiometabolic profile and underscore the need for systematic workplace cardiovascular health promotion and prevention programmes targeting university staff in El Salvador and similar middle-income settings.