Based on research that included nearly 140,000 participants, it was found that an overall 22 percent are at higher stroke risk among those in high-strain jobs versus low-strain occupations. In some cases, the risk was elevated by up to 58 percent.
Previous studies of work stress and stroke had been inconsistent, senior author Dr. Dingli Xu of Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, told Reuters Health.
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.
Using a well-established formula, these kinds of studies usually define high-strain jobs as those with high demands and little control over decision-making.
Xu's team considered the data from six studies involving a total of 138,782 participants who were followed for three to 17 years.
They used an existing system to classify job stress based on demands, such as time pressure, mental load or coordination, and control, such as the worker's ability to decide when or how they complete tasks.
According to these categories, passive jobs, like janitors or manual laborers, have low demands and low control. Low stress jobs, like architects or scientists, have low demand and high control. Active jobs, like doctors, teachers and engineers, have high demand and high control.
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.
The risk was 33% higher among women in high-strain jobs compared to those in low-strain jobs. And in both sexes, the risk of ischemic stroke - which is usually caused by a clot that blocks blood flow to the brain - was 58 percent greater in the high strain jobs group compared to those in low-strain jobs.
The other common form of stroke, hemorrhagic, which is caused by a broken blood vessel in the brain, was less linked to job strain.
The inconsistency of past studies in finding links between job strain and stroke risk may be caused by "different methods used to evaluate work stress, different psychological responses in men and women and different social culture with the studied populations," Xu told Reuters Health by email. CONTINUE READING
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