Chronic occupational stress, characterized by high effort and low reward, independently predicts cardiovascular events in male blue-collar workers alongside established risk factors like hypertension and LVH.
Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that, compared with the population as a whole, there is increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among lower socio-economic groups. To explore determinants of the increased risk within this group, a prospective 6.5 year investigation of a cohort of 416 middle-aged (40.8 +/- 9.6 years) male blue-collar workers was undertaken. In addition to established somatic and behavioural risk factors, psychosocial influences that measured chronic occupational stress in terms of an imbalance between high effort and low reward were assessed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that hypertension (odds ratio (o.r.) 3.85; 95% CI 1.59-9.34), left ventricular hypertrophy (o.r. 3.62; 95% CI 1.06-12.37), hyperlipidaemia (o.r. 2.55; 95% CI 1.08-6.00), status inconsistency (measuring low reward at work) (o.r. 2.86; 95% CI 1.04-7.80) and 'immersion' (measuring high intrinsic effort at work) (o.r. 3.57; 95% CI 1.22-10.47) independently contribute to the prediction of fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular events (acute myocardial infarction, stroke). Expected probabilities of cardiovascular events are clearly elevated if the combined effects of left ventricular hypertrophy and psychosocial risks are analysed. In conclusion, increased incidence of cardiovascular disease among lower socio-economic groups is explained by a co-manifestation of established risk factors including left ventricular hypertrophy (by ECG) and psychosocial factors measuring chronic stress at work.
Siegrist et al. (Wed,) studied this question.