People who have high-stress jobs may have an increased risk of stroke, according to a new analysis of previous research.
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“Having a lot of job stress has been linked to heart disease, but studies on job stress and stroke have shown inconsistent results”, said researcher Dr Dingli Xu, of Southern Medical University in China.
The results emerged after analysis of earlier studies and researchers point out that those in stressful jobs tend to eat and drink less healthily and smoke more.
Plenty of research has linked job strain to heart disease in general and high blood pressure in particular, he and his coauthors note in Neurology. Xu categorized them depending on how much control a person had over their occupation, how hard they worked, and the physical demands of the job, such as time pressure, mental load, and coordination burdens. People who experience high levels of stress at work may be at greater risk for stroke.
People with high stress jobs were 58 percent more likely to have an ischemic stroke than those with low stress jobs. Active jobs, like doctors, teachers and engineers, have high demand and high control.
“We think further studies are needed to evaluate whether job stress directly increases the risk of stroke or whether other concurrent risk factors are responsible for the increased risk observed”, Huang said.
According to Chinese scientists, waiters and waitresses are doing the most stressful job there is, with anti-social hours and low sense of personal empowerment contributing to an increased risk of stroke among staff.
Ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke, is caused by blockage of blood flow because of the development of fatty deposits lining the blood vessel walls – a condition known as atherosclerosis.
If you’ve ever complained that your job is “killing you”, your hyperbole may not be totally off base.
The researchers then looked at the possible health implications of being placed in each of these four categories.
Most important, high-stress jobs may lead to unhealthy behaviors, such as poor eating habits, smoking and a lack of exercise, Huang said.
While strategies to mitigate stress are increasingly popular in the tech industry, little is done to assist service workers, who are the most exposed to these dangers. The researchers calculated that 4.4 percent of the stroke risk was due to the high stress jobs. It was not clear why women had a higher risk.
Stress in the workplace is no joke – just ask a brain surgeon/firefighter. However, the jobs are mostly low-wage, with very few benefits.
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However, this propensity could be combated, by making lifestyle changes, such as quitting cigarettes, following a healthy diet or keeping physically active. Jobs on the low end of the spectrum for both psychological demand and control are considered “passive”, such as manual labor gigs.
