Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of cardiometabolic risk factors among workers: results from the Japan Epidemiology Collaboration on Occupational Health study

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions on human activities have greatly changed lifestyles, which might have deteriorated the cardiometabolic profile.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of cardiometabolic risk factors among Japanese workers in fiscal years (FY) 2020 and 2021 compared with the prepandemic period.

Method: This study comprised an average of 71 025 employees in Japan who underwent annual health check-ups for at least two successive years from 2015 to 2021. Annual incidence rates from 2016 to 2021 were assessed for obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and metabolic syndrome (MetS). The observed incidence rates in 2020 and 2021 were compared with the predicted incidence based on prepandemic trends (2016 to 2019).

Results: Relative to the prepandemic, the incidence of all the outcomes, except for dyslipidaemia, significantly increased in 2020. Between FY 2016 and 2019, the adjusted mean incidence of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and MetS was 5.0%, 1.4%, 5.3%, 17.4% and 7.6%, respectively. In FY 2020, the adjusted incidence (95% CI) of these outcomes increased to 6.02 (5.80 to 6.24), 1.84 (1.73 to 1.96), 6.62 (6.40 to 6.83), 19.31 (18.83 to 19.78) and 8.51 (8.23 to 8.78), which were higher than the predicted incidence of 5.24 (4.99 to 5.49), 1.54 (1.41 to 1.67), 6.02 (5.76 to 6.27), 18.58 (18.00 to 19.16) and 8.05 (7.71 to 8.38) for 2020, respectively. The incidence returned to the prepandemic levels in FY 2021.

Conclusion: Results showed a worsening of the cardiometabolic profile during the initial year of the pandemic, which was reverted in the second year to the levels before the pandemic.