Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health 12 (2021) 100886 Available online 30 October 2021 2213-3984/© 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of INDIACLEN. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Original article Risk assessment for varicose veins among city Police-A cross sectional study Ramesh Timilsina a , Prasad M.R. b , Mubashir Angolkar c , Nagaraj Patil d, * a J.N Medical College, KAHER, Belagavi, Karnataka, India b Department of Cardiology, KLES Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital & MRC, Associate Professor, J.N Medical College, Belagavi, India c Department of Public Health, J.N. Medical College, Nehru Nagar, Belagavi, India d Department of Public Health, J.N Medical College, KAHER, Belagavi, Karnataka, India A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Varicose veins Risk Police personnel Prevalence Occupational hazard Health status ABSTRACT Introduction: People with overweight, standing for prolonged time, increasing age, smoking habit, heavy lifting and pregnancies in female increases risks of having varicose veins and are found common in lower limbs i.e saphenous vein. Objective: To assess the risks of varicose vein among policemen and to assess the association between varicose vein and their designation among police of Belagavi city, Karnataka, India. Material and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 150 police personnel who were working in Belagavi city. Information was collected by using questionnaire for socio-demographic, general information and symptoms. Observational checklist was used to assess signs of VV. Results: Out of 150 participants, the mean age of participants was 39.28 years. Among them, 74.66% were male and 25.34% were female where 77 (51.30%) were Police Constable, 54 (36%) were Head Constable, 15 (10%) were ASI, 2 (1.30%) were Inspector & Sub Inspector respectively. The mean standing hour per day was found to be 6.69 h and the mean years of service was found to be 9.11 years. It was found that 14.7% of police personnel had varicose veins and 20% of them were in the risk of developing VV. Conclusion: varicose veins has signifcant association with religion, designation, duration of working, income, marital status, lungs problem, DVT, cardiac infract and HTN. Similarly, risk of developing varicose vein has a signifcant association with marital status and duration of standing. 1. Introduction Varicose veins (VV) are caused by incompetent venous valves which are abnormally dilated and tortuous in nature. This condition usually occurs in lower extremities in saphenous veins. Varicose veins can simply be a cosmetic issue or it may cause cramping pain in affected side and movement problems in lower extremities. 1 The risk factors like prolonged standing, overweight, ageing, smok- ing, overweight, heavy lifting and pregnancy in females increases the possibility of developing VV. An increase in straining bowel movement, low fber intake, genetic weakness in vein walls, increasing age, meno- pause increases the chances of developing VV .2 Prevention can be done by elevating legs above the level of heart for several minutes throughout a day, walking every day to build calf muscle helps to relieve symptoms, maintaining body weight by eating healthy foods, keeping legs moving, fexing ankles timely while sitting at desk to keep the blood pumping, wearing compression stockings will support and aid the valves to keep the blood pumping out of legs etc. 3 In population study, prevalence has been reported from 2% to over 20%. This enormous variation results from different assessment and examination technique, different populations studied, different defni- tions applied and Western studies have shown that 20% population and in India about 5% population suffer from varicose veins. Compared to western population, India has less prevalence of varicose veins because most of the patients do not come to the hospital unless complications such as pain, edema and ulceration, etc. occur. 4 According to National Health Service waiting lists in UK, Varicose Veins diagnosis is still considerable unmet need and similarly in India also. Especially in developing countries like India, assessment and treatment were challenging but with the advancement of medical sci- ences, diagnosis of venous diseases using USG, doppler study, endo venous and compression therapies etc has made better impact for identifying and treating venous disease. 5 As per the WHO (2007) census, western population have 2% varicose * Corresponding author. Department of Public Health, J. N. Medical College, KAHER, Belgaum, 590010, Karnataka, India. E-mail addresses: Timilsinaramesh18@gmail.com (R. Timilsina), drnagaraj.patil108@gmail.com (N. Patil). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cegh https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cegh.2021.100886 Received 17 June 2021; Received in revised form 4 September 2021; Accepted 26 October 2021