Job strain and mortality in elderly men: social network, support, and influence as buffers.

The aim was to investigate whether job strain affects mortality in a representative population of elderly men, and whether social network and social support outside the workplace can buffer the negative health effects of job strain. A higher relative mortality risk (RR) was found among men exposed to job strain (RR = 1.7). The combination of exposure to job strain and seven different measures of weak social network and social support was associated with a further increased RR ranging from 2.1 to 4.6.