الفهرس 
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Abstract
Varicose veins are defined as dilated, tortuous and palpable subcutaneous veins that are typically larger than 3-4 mm in diameter. Approximately, 30% of the adult population have varicose veins. It is more frequent in industrialized than under developed countries. The prevalence of varicose veins has been reported to be 2-56% among men & >1-73% in women. Risk factors of varicose veins may be primary including inheritance, age, obesity, gender and multiple pregnancy, or secondary including lifting heavy objects and workplace conditions of certain occupations.
In Egypt, updated data about risk factors of varicose veins are not well documented. The current research was conducted to study some epidemiological and occupational risk factors of cases having LLVVs attending vascular surgery clinic in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria. A case control study was adopted. Cases group comprised 150 patients with LLVVs and controls group comprised 150 patients attended ophthalmology clinic at the Alexandria Faculty of Medicine. Clinical examination of the lower limb (CEAP classification) was carried out to diagnose or exclude LLVVs among cases and controls. All participants were subjected to 1) a structured interview format to collect data about sociodemographic characteristics, epidemiological, life style and occupational factors; 2) anthropometric measurements; and 3) Clinical examination of the lower limb (CEAP classification). The study was conducted over a period of 4 months, where two visits per week were conducted.
All data was typed onto a computer file using SPSS version IBM 20 for window (IBM Corp. Released 2011. IBM SPSS Statistics for Mac, Armonk, NY, USA). Descriptive analysis, parametric and non parametric were employed. Bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were used. Associations were considered statistically significant if p ≤ 0.05. The explained variance of logistic regression model was calculated by means of Nagelkerke’s R2 and the goodness of fit by means of the Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness-of fit test.
Regarding sociodemographic characteristics of the studied population, cases and controls were age and sex matched. On the other hand, patients with LLVVs tended to be illiterate/obtained basic education 4.07 times higher than those without LLVVs [OR 95% CI=4.07: (2.51-6.62), p>0.001].
As regards the relation between epidemiological and life style factors and LLVVs, according to univariate analysis, cases with LLVVs tended to frequently lift heavy objects 45.34 times higher than those without LLVVs [OR 95% CI=45.34:(6.12-335.94), p>0.001]. Additionally, 59.3% of cases reported standing more than 4 hours/day compared with 17.3% of controls (p<0.001). Furthermore, 41.3% of cases reported sleeping less than 8 hours/da