Physical labor and total number of hours worked were not included.
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If you’ve ever complained that your job is “killing you”, your hyperbole may not be totally off base. Then they categori participants’ work into four groups: low demand, low control; low demand, high control; high demand, low control; and high demand, high control. The job demands included time pressure, mental load and co-ordination burdens. The researchers also considered how much latitude workers had in deciding how to carry out their assignments, a factor known as “job control”.
Furthermore, University of Utah associate professor of neurology Dr. Jennifer J. Majersik, notes that these study analyses did not necessarily always look at the participants’ metabolism or inflammation levels; all of these things can affect stroke risk. These stand in contrast to “active” jobs that combine high psychological demand and high control (think doctors and engineers).
Low stress jobs: Jobs with low demand and high control, such as natural scientists and architects.
None of those types of jobs were tied to an increase in stroke risk in the new study, but people with high stress jobs involving high demand and low control, like waitresses and nurses, were 22 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than people with low stress jobs. Active and passive workers, on the other hand, saw no increased risk of stroke at all, according to the study.
Unfortunately, high-strain jobs were not that rare. The researchers calculated that 4.4 percent of the stroke risk was due to the high stress jobs. Accept the fact that god made men and women different.
It was established that respondents from the high-stress category were approximately 22% more susceptible to suffering a stroke, than their counterparts with passive jobs (manual laborers) and low stress jobs.
The team analyzed all of the available research on job pressure and stroke risk. People with high stress jobs were 58 per cent more likely to have an ischemic stroke than those with low stress jobs. (Ischemic strokes account for about 87% of all strokes, according to the American Stroke Assn.) However, the increased risk of a hemorrhagic stroke – the kind that happens when a blood vessel ruptures and causes blood to accumulate in the brain – wasn’t statistically significant. Long-term stress also messes with blood pressure, which can destabilize plaques in the arteries, and can weaken the immune system by boosting the body’s production of the hormone cortisol.
Dingli Xu, MD, with Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, told the Telegraph: “Having a lot of job stress has been linked to heart disease, but studies on job stress and stroke have shown inconsistent results”.
Whatever the biological explanation, the study highlights the need to find ways to turn high-strain jobs into low-strain jobs.
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Xu suggested that the risk could be reduced by increasing access to cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation therapy, especially in women. Therefore, it is imperative to address these issues immediately, in order to diminish occupational stress and curb its devastating impact on such employees.
