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Stevelink SAM, Opie E, Pernet D, Gao H, Elliott P, Wessely S, Fear NT, Hotopf M, Greenberg N. Probable PTSD, depression and anxiety in 40,299 UK police officers and staff: Prevalence, risk factors and associations with blood pressure. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0240902. [PMID: 33180769 PMCID: PMC7660485 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2019] [Accepted: 10/06/2020] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Police employees undertake challenging duties which may adversely impact their health. This study explored the prevalence of and risk factors for probable mental disorders amongst a representative sample of UK police employees. The association between mental illness and alterations in blood pressure was also explored. METHODS Data were used from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study which was established to monitor the possible physical health impacts of a new communication system on police employees. Data included sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and blood pressure. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the prevalence of probable mental disorders and associated factors. Stepwise linear regression was conducted, controlling for confounding variables, to examine associations between mental disorders and blood pressure. RESULTS The sample included 40,299 police staff, police constable/sergeants and inspectors or above. Probable depression was most frequently reported (9.8%), followed by anxiety (8.5%) and PTSD (3.9%). Groups at risk for probable mental disorders included police staff, and police employees who reported drinking heavily. Police employees exposed to traumatic incidents in the past six months had a doubling in rates of anxiety or depression and a six-fold increase in PTSD compared to those with no recent trauma exposure. Adjusted logistic regression models did not reveal any significant association between probable mental disorders and systolic blood pressure but significantly elevated diastolic blood pressure (≈1mmHg) was found across mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS These results show lower rates of probable mental disorders, especially PTSD, than reported in other studies focusing on police employees. Although mental ill health was associated with increased diastolic blood pressure, this was unlikely to be clinically significant. These findings highlight the importance of continued health monitoring of members of the UK police forces, focusing on employees recently exposed to traumatic incidents, heavy drinkers and police staff.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharon A. M. Stevelink
- King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Elena Opie
- King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - David Pernet
- King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - He Gao
- MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Paul Elliott
- MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- NIHR Imperial College Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London, United Kingdom
- Health Data Research UK London at Imperial College London, Faculty of Medicine, St Mary’s Campus, London, United Kingdom
| | - Simon Wessely
- King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Nicola T. Fear
- King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
- Academic Department of Military Mental Health, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Matthew Hotopf
- Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
| | - Neil Greenberg
- King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
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Elliott P, Aresu M, Gao H, Vergnaud AC, Heard A, McRobie D, Spear J, Singh D, Kongsgård HW, Mbema C, Muller DC. Use of TETRA personal radios and sickness absence in the Airwave Health Monitoring Study of the British police forces. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2019; 175:148-155. [PMID: 31125718 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.05.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2019] [Revised: 05/09/2019] [Accepted: 05/10/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is used for radiocommunications among the British police forces. OBJECTIVES To investigate association of personal radio use and sickness absence among police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study. METHODS Participant-level sickness absence records for 26 forces were linked with personal radio use for 32,102 participants. We used multivariable logistic regression to analyse TETRA usage in year prior to enrolment and sickness absence (lasting more than 7 or 28 consecutive days) in the following year and a zero-inflated negative binomial model for analyses of number of sickness absence episodes of any duration ('spells') over the same period. In secondary analyses, we looked at an extended period of observation among a sub-cohort with linked data over time, using Cox proportional hazards regression. RESULTS Median personal radio use (year prior to enrolment) was 29.7 min per month (interquartile range 7.5, 64.7) among users. In the year following enrolment there were 25,655 sickness absence spells among 15,248 participants. There were similar risks of sickness absence lasting more than seven days among users and non-users, although among users risk was higher with greater use, odds ratio = 1.04 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02 to 1.06) per doubling of radio use. There was no association for sickness absence of more than 28 days. For sickness absence spells, risk was lower among users than non-users (incidence rate ratio = 0.91; 95% CI 0.75 to 1.11), again with higher risk among users for greater radio use. There was no association between radio use and sickness absence in secondary analyses. DISCUSSION There were similar or lower risks of sickness absence in TETRA radio users compared with non-users. Among users, the higher risk of sickness absence with greater radio use may reflect working pattern differences among police personnel rather than effects of radiofrequency exposure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Elliott
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; NIHR Health Protection Research Unit on Health Effects of Environmental Hazards, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) at Imperial College, Imperial College London, London, UK.
| | - Maria Aresu
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - He Gao
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Anne-Claire Vergnaud
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Andy Heard
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Dennis McRobie
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Jeanette Spear
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Deepa Singh
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | | | - Catherine Mbema
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; Consultant in Public Health, Lewisham Council, London, UK
| | - David C Muller
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
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Gao H, Aresu M, Vergnaud AC, McRobie D, Spear J, Heard A, Kongsgård HW, Singh D, Muller DC, Elliott P. Personal radio use and cancer risks among 48,518 British police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study. Br J Cancer 2019; 120:375-378. [PMID: 30585256 PMCID: PMC6354010 DOI: 10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2018] [Revised: 11/30/2018] [Accepted: 11/30/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from mobile phones have been classified as potentially carcinogenic. No study has investigated use of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), a source of RF-EMF with wide occupational use, and cancer risks. METHODS We investigated association of monthly personal radio use and risk of cancer using Cox proportional hazards regression among 48,518 police officers and staff of the Airwave Health Monitoring Study in Great Britain. RESULTS During median follow-up of 5.9 years, 716 incident cancer cases were identified. Among users, the median of the average monthly duration of use in the year prior to enrolment was 30.5 min (inter-quartile range 8.1, 68.1). Overall, there was no association between personal radio use and risk of all cancers (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.98, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93, 1.03). For head and neck cancers HR = 0.72 (95% CI: 0.30, 1.70) among personal radio users vs non-users, and among users it was 1.06 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.23) per doubling of minutes of personal radio use. CONCLUSIONS With the limited follow-up to date, we found no evidence of association of personal radio use with cancer risk. Continued follow-up of the cohort is warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- He Gao
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Maria Aresu
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Anne-Claire Vergnaud
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Dennis McRobie
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Jeanette Spear
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Andy Heard
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Håvard Wahl Kongsgård
- Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
| | - Deepa Singh
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - David C Muller
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Paul Elliott
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
- NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Health Effects of Environmental Hazards, Imperial College London, London, UK.
- UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI) at Imperial College, Imperial College London, London, UK.
- Health Data Research-UK (HDR) London Centre at Imperial College, Imperial College London, London, UK.
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