14 DAY TRIAL // A new research concluded that women with high job strain, have 40 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and the necessity of opening blocked arteries procedures included, compared to women who have little or not stress at all.
Job strain is a type of psychological stress, caused by a very demanding job that strongly limits the decision-making authority or a person's opportunities to use their individual skills or creativity.
To this adds up job insecurity, which was linked to other risk factors for cardiovascular disease like high blood pressure and cholesterol level, as well as excess body weight.
This stressful factor is however not directly connected to heart attacks, stroke, invasive heart procedures or cardiovascular death.
17,415 healthy women who took part at the Women's Health Study, had their job strain analyzed – they were mostly Caucasian health professionals, of an average age of 57, and gave information about the risk factors for heart disease, job strain and job insecurity.
The researchers followed them for a ten-year period, in order to observe the development of cardiovascular disease.
For evaluating job strain and job insecurity levels, the scientists used a standard questionnaire, with affirmations like 'My job requires working very hard', 'My job requires working very fast', 'I am free from competing demands that others make'.
Women who reported high job strain had a 40 percent higher risk of having heart attacks, ischemic strokes, coronary artery bypass surgery or balloon angioplasty and even death.
The rise in heart attack risk was of 88 percent, as for an invasive procedure or bypass surgery, the risk was 43 percent higher.
Michelle A. Albert, MD, M.P.H., the study's senior author and associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, said that the “study indicates that there are both immediate and long-term clinically documented cardiovascular health effects of job strain in women.
“Your job can positively and negatively affect health, making it important to pay attention to the stresses of your job as part of your total health package.”
Natalie Slopen, Sc.D., lead researcher and a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University Center on the Developing Child in Boston added that “women in jobs characterized by high demands and low control, as well as jobs with high demands but a high sense of control are at higher risk for heart disease long term.”
Albert stressed that “from a public health perspective, it's crucial for employers, potential patients, as well as government and hospitals entities to monitor perceived employee job strain and initiate programs to alleviate job strain and perhaps positively impact prevention of heart disease.”
The Women’s Health Study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, and this research was presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2010.