Do police officers and firefighters have a higher risk of disease than other public officers? A 13-year nationwide cohort study in South Korea

Abstract

Objectives: The work of public officers involves repeated and long-term exposure to heavy workloads, high job strain and workplace violence, all of which negatively impact physical and mental health. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the incidences of diseases among different categories of public officers in Korea, in order to further understand the health risks associated with these occupations.

Design: A cohort study using the National Health Insurance data.

Participants: We collated claims data between 2002 and 2014 for 860 221 public officers.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: Age-standardised rates were calculated using the direct standardisation method, and HRs were calculated using the Cox proportional hazard regression models.

Results: Overall, we found that police officers and firefighters had a higher incidence of a range of diseases when compared with national and regional government officers (NRG). The most prominent HRs were observed among police officers for angina pectoris (HR: 1.52, 95% CI 1.49 to 1.54), acute myocardial infarction (HR: 1.84, 95% CI 1.77 to 1.92) and cerebrovascular disease (HR: 1.36, 95% CI 1.31 to 1.40). Firefighters were more susceptible to physical ailments and were at a significantly higher risk for traumatic stress disorders (HR: 1.40, 95% CI 1.26 to 1.56) than NRGs.

Conclusion: Compared withNRGs, police officers had higher HRs for all measured diseases, except for traumatic stress disorders. While firefighters had higher HRs for almost all diseases examined, public education officers had a higher HR for traumatic stress disorders, when compared with NRGs.

Keywords: cohort; firefighter; hazard ratios; police officer; public officer.