Workplace stress ‘major factor’ in heart disease and diabetes

BEING exposed to stress in the workplace is a major factor in the development of heart disease and diabetes, researchers have found.

Stress at work has been linked to heart disease in a number of previous studies, but the biological processes behind the association remain unclear.

Now a study, published online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), has found new evidence of the biology to possibly explain this important link.

The researchers, from University College London, studied 10,308 British civil servants aged 35-55 over a 14-year period.

They looked at their levels of work stress and the incidence of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of factors that increase the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes such as obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Levels of work stress were measured at four times between 1985 and 1999.

The researchers also measured the different aspects of metabolic syndrome, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels between 1997 and 1999.

Factors such as social class, smoking, high alcohol consumption and lack of exercise were all recorded as part of the study.

The researchers discovered that there was a link between the amount of stress experienced in their job and the levels of metabolic syndrome symptoms, even when considering the other risk factors.

This “dose-response” relationship meant that the more stress someone suffered, the more likely they were to suffer metabolic syndrome symptoms.

The researchers said, for example, men who suffered chronic work stress were twice as likely to develop the syndrome as men who had no exposure to stress.

Women with chronic stress were also more likely to suffer from metabolic syndrome, although they formed only a small group in the study.

The researchers concluded: “A dose-response association exists between exposure to work stress and the metabolic syndrome.

“Employees with chronic work stress have more than double the odds of the syndrome than those without work stress, after other risk factors are taken into account.

“The study provides evidence for the biological plausibility of psycho-social stress mechanisms linking stressors from everyday life with heart disease.”

The researchers said one explanation for the result may be that prolonged exposure to work stress affects the nervous system.

They also suggested that chronic stress may reduce biological resilience, thus disturbing the body’s physiological balance.

Unions and other groups representing the interests of workers have long called for greater efforts to tackle stress in the workplace.

The study in the BMJ also found both men and women from lower employment grades were more likely to have metabolic syndrome.