Work-related stress related to cardiovascular health

New research highlights the impact of workplace stress on heart health and highlights the need for health interventions.

Education: Work-Related Stress Is Associated with Health Benefits of Friends: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.. Image credit: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock.com

In a recent study published in Journal of the American Heart Associationresearchers investigated the relationship between work-related stress and cardiovascular health (CVH) in a sample of adults without cardiovascular disease (CVD) at baseline.

Rear end

In 2010, the American Heart Association introduced a new definition of CVH that emphasizes the early prevention of CVD risk factors by examining seven health behaviors and factors known as Life’s Simple 7: smoking, exercise, diet, total cholesterol, body mass index (BMI). ), blood pressure, and blood sugar.

In 2022, this was upgraded to Life’s Essential 8 with the addition of sleep. High levels of psychological stress, especially work-related stress, negatively affect CVH and increase the risk of adverse CVD outcomes.

More research is needed to examine the relationship between work-related stress and CVH across different populations.

About education

Data for this analysis were obtained from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Baseline data were collected from 6,814 participants, aged 45 to 84, who did not have clinical CVD or heart failure. The mixed group consisted of approximately 38% Whites, 28% Blacks, 22% Hispanics, and 12% Chinese Americans.

Work-related stress was assessed with a self-administered questionnaire, and participants reported ongoing work-related problems. CVH was assessed using the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 metrics, which include factors such as smoking status, physical activity, BMI, eating habits and blood pressure.

This study considered various sociodemographic covariates, including age, sex, education, race, and income, to analyze the independent relationship between work-related stress and CVH. Statistical analyzes used polytomous logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (OR), adjusting for potential confounders.

Study results

The study sample consisted of 3,579 participants, of whom 48% were women, with a mean age of 57 years and a standard deviation of 8 years. Those reporting depression related and work tended to be younger, with a greater proportion under the age of 65 compared to their counterparts who did not experience stress at work.

In addition, a greater proportion of women reported experiencing work-related stress than men, highlighting possible gender differences in the prevalence of this psychological risk factor.

Among racial and ethnic groups, White participants showed higher prevalence of occupational stress than other groups, while Chinese American and Hispanic participants showed lower levels of occupational stress when compared to their non-stressed counterparts.

The analysis revealed significant correlations between work-related stress and CVH scores. Participants with work-related stress were significantly less likely to obtain medium and fair CVH scores.

Specifically, those with work-related stress were less likely to achieve heart health scores, indicating that work-related stress can be harmful to heart health.

In addition, the presence of work-related stress was associated with a reduced likelihood of meeting the criteria for several positive metrics. This suggests that people who experience stress at work may have difficulty engaging in health-promoting behaviors or maintaining positive health indicators.

When examining individual CVH metrics, participants with occupational stress were less likely to report appropriate levels of physical activity.

Although the same trend was observed across other health measures such as smoking, BMI, diet, total cholesterol levels, blood pressure and blood sugar, the self-confidence period for associations this included a null value, indicating that these findings were not statistically significant.

This highlights the complexity of the relationship between work-related stress and different aspects of CVH, as the impact of stress may be reflected differently in health metrics.

Additional analyzes performed did not show effect size modification by age, gender, or race and ethnicity, suggesting that the negative effect of work-related stress on CVH may be the same across different groups of people.

In addition, the analysis revealed that sustained work stress for six months or more was associated with an increased reduction in CVH, emphasizing the long-term effects of chronic stress on outcomes. of the heart.

Decisions

To summarize, in a multi-ethnic group of adults without CVD, those with work-related stress showed lower odds of positive CVH scores and poorer CVH metrics compared to those without. depressed.

This association was evident in levels of physical activity and demonstrated patterns of smoking, BMI, diet and other health factors. Biological processes, such as high cortisol and epinephrine, can contribute to inflammation and poor CVH.