Associations between Job Strain and Arterial Stiffness: A Large Survey among Enterprise Employees from Thailand

Abstract

As an intermediate endpoint to cardiovascular disease, arterial stiffness has received much attention recently. So far, the research on work stress and arterial stiffness is still sparse and inconsistent, and no investigations on work stress and cardiovascular health among the Thai working population have been reported. Therefore, we conducted an epidemiological study among 2141 Thai enterprise employees (858 men and 1283 women) who were free from any diagnosed cardiovascular disease. Work stress was measured using Karasek’s Job Demand–Control model for job strain (a combination of high demand and low control). Arterial stiffness was evaluated by a non-invasive approach using pulse-wave analysis based on a finger photoplethysmogram. Multivariable linear regression was applied to examine associations between job strain and arterial stiffness. In men, job strain was significantly associated with arterial stiffness (β = 0.078, 95% confidence interval = 0.026 to 0.130), after accounting for sociodemographic, behavioral, dietary and biomedical factors. However, the association in women was not significant. As the first study in Thailand on work stress and cardiovascular risk, we found that job strain might be an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease among Thai working men. Further studies with longitudinal design are warranted.

Association Between Occupational, Sport, and Leisure Related Physical Activity and Baroreflex Sensitivity

“…Furthermore, OPA may be a marker of poor psychosocial conditions, however, the association between OPA and nBRS remained after adjustment for education and perceived stress. Work stressors such as effortreward imbalance or demand-control imbalance could also be involved but were not measured in the current study (30,31).…”

“…Work stressors, such as effortreward imbalance or demand-control imbalance, could also be involved but were not measured in the current study. 30,31 Only a few prior studies have examined the association of SPA with nBRS and mBRS. They included small sample populations and used invasive methods to measure BRS (infusion of vasoactive drugs).…”

Serum leptin levels are positively associated with aortic stiffness in patients with chronic kidney disease stage 3–5

“…It has been demonstrated that albuminuria is often followed by the development and progression of aortic stiffness and atherosclerosis [33]. Finally, job strain was significantly associated with arterial stiffness in men among enterprise employees from Thailand [34]. In this study, we did not record occupations and labour levels.…”

Association between Life Stressors and Arterial Stiffness: The Finnish Retirement and Aging Study

“…The strengths of our study include having a relatively large number of participants with varying occupational backgrounds as earlier studies have concluded that manual workers may be more vulnerable to job strain induced high blood pressure [22], a strong correlate of arterial stiffness. Moreover, we used carotid-femoral PWV, the noninvasive gold standard for measuring PWV [23], in contrast to previous studies that used a wide scale of non-conventional methods for assessing arterial stiffness (augmentation index, brachialankle pulse wave velocity and finger photoplethysmogram) [7,8,[10][11][12].…”