Paper Title
Prevalence of Coronary Artery Disease Risk Factors Among Fire-Fighters in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract
Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and a leading cause of on-duty mortality among fire-fighters. This study investigated the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors among career fire-fighters in the City of CapeTown, South Africa. A quantitative, cross-sectional and descriptive study design was used. A sample of 219 male fire-fighters with mean age 37.85±9.80 years was recruited using convenience sampling. Eight major CAD risk factors were measured according to the guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). SPSS (ver. 23) was used with the Pearson correlation and Kruskall-Wallis H test with the Mann Whitney test post hoc and aBonferroni correction. The significance level set at p<0.05. Most fire-fighters (65.29%) were stratified asmoderate risk for CAD, with 21.00% as low risk, and 14.15% as high risk. A sedentary lifestyle was the most prevalent CAD risk factor (51.14%), followed by obesity (45.90%). and cigarette smoking (38.30%). Statistically significant correlations were found between waist circumference and body mass index (BMI)(r=0.711; p<0.01), hip circumference and BMI (r=0.673; p<0.01), waist circumference and waist-hip ratio (WHR)(r=0.665; p<0.01), and BMI and body mass (r=0.512; p<0.01). The majority of fire-fighters presented with multiple modifiable CAD risk factors. Fire departments should focus on promoting CAD education and wellness programmes in order to reduce the risk of developing heart disease among fire-fighters. Keywords- CoronaryArtery Disease, Fire-Fighters, Prevalence,RiskFactor.