September 20, 2023 – Work-related stress increases men’s risk of heart disease, based on a latest report within the Journal of the American Heart Association Circulation: Cardiovascular quality and outcomes.
It is already known that stress affects physical and psychological well-being. Stress aspects within the workplace include high workloads, tight deadlines and a scarcity of autonomy.
The authors concluded that men who suffered from job stress or an imbalance between effort and reward were 49 percent more more likely to develop heart disease than men without such stress.
“An effort-reward imbalance occurs when employees put a lot of effort into their work, but perceive the rewards they receive for it – such as salary, recognition or job security – as inadequate or not commensurate with the effort,” said the study's lead writer, Mathilde Lavigne-Robichaud, a doctoral student in population health on the CHU de Quebec-University Laval research centre, in a press release to CBS News.
According to a CBS report, men in each work situations were twice as more likely to develop heart disease as men who weren't exposed to each stressors at the identical time.
The health effects of workload and effort-reward imbalance are about as large as the results of obesity on the danger of coronary heart disease, the study says.
“Given the significant amount of time people spend at work, understanding the relationship between work stressors and cardiovascular health is critical to public health and worker well-being,” said Lavigne-Robichaud. “Our study highlights the urgent need to proactively address stressful work conditions to create healthier work environments that benefit employees and employers.”
The researchers followed greater than 6,400 people in office jobs in Canada from 2000 to 2018. The participants had no heart problems. Their average age was 45. Their workload and effort-reward imbalance were compared with their incidence of heart disease. The results for girls were inconclusive.