Marital status and cardiovascular risk in French and Swedish automotive industry workers – cross sectional results from the Renault–Volvo Coeur study

Abstract

. Kumlin L, Latscha G, Orth‐Gomér K, Dimberg L, Lanoiselée C, Simon A, Eriksson B, the Coeur Study Group (Health Department, Volvo Aero Corporation, Trollhättan, Sweden; Service Medical, Renault Automobiles, Billancourt, France; Department of Preventive Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; The World Bank, Washington DC, USA; Broussais Hospital, Paris, France; and Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg Sweden). Marital status and cardiovascular risk in French and Swedish automotive industry workers – cross sectional results from the Renault–Volvo–Coeur study (Original article). J Intern Med 2001; 249: 315–323. Objectives. To compare the coronary risk profiles in a sample of the French and Swedish automotive industry employees who were married/cohabitant, divorced or single (never married). Design. A cross‐sectional study comparison from biological and questionnaire data between the French and Swedish samples. Setting. Occupational health departments at Renault (employees from the north‐west of France) and Volvo (employees from the south‐west of Sweden). Subjects. Two random samples of males aged between 45 and 50 years were examined in 1993, from Renault 1000, and from Volvo 1000. Main outcome measures. Biological data including cholesterol, blood pressure as well as the Framingham risk index. Self reported information regarding marital status, smoking, exercise, alcohol habits, and work stress assessed by the Karasek method, private social support indices, and type A behaviour according to the Bortner scale. Results. More employees were married/cohabitant and fewer divorced or single at Renault. Apart from waist/hip ratio being marginally lower in Swedish single men, compared with married and divorced, no significant difference in biological cardiac risk factors (total cholesterol, blood pressure or Framingham risk index) was seen between the subgroups from any of the two countries. Compared with married/cohabitant men, it was shown that in men living alone smoking was more prevalent at Renault and Volvo. These men also showed less type A behaviour, a lower work control and a lower work support and fewer close friends. Alcohol consumption was reported in smaller amounts for Volvo employees living alone compared with married or divorced employees. Married/cohabitant and divorced staff showed similar values regarding all measured variables when compared within each country. Conclusions. Employees living alone in both France (Renault) and Sweden (Volvo) automotive companies seem to have increased nontraditional cardiac risk factors pertaining to life style and social network compared with married or divorced men. These results, in combination with the finding that more Volvo than Renault employees were living alone, suggest a higher risk for coronary heart disease amongst Volvo employees. This hypothesis will be evaluated in the 5 and 10 years follow up study.

Self-perceived Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Their Relationships with Psychosocial Job Factors in Male Automotive Assembly Workers

“…Previous studies have shown that workers in automotive assembly plants reported high levels of job stress [1][2][3][4][5] . For instance, Karasek et al's 3) cross-sectional study highlighted high strain work (high demand and low control) in machine-paced operative assemblers.…”

“…Studies have shown that job stress was a significant problem in automotive assembly line workers [2][3][4][5][6] . Karasek 3) highlighted high strain work (high demand and low control) among machine-paced operative assemblers.…”

Marital Status and Cardiovascular Risk Factors among Middle‐aged Japanese Male Workers: The High‐risk and Population Strategy for Occupational Health Promotion (HIPOP‐OHP) Study

“…Gliksman et al showed that Australian men aged ≥65 yr who had never married had low average HDL-cholesterol, and that those living alone had high average SBP 6) . However, Kumlin et al 8) and Ben-Shlomo et al 11) in a study of French, Swedish and English workplaces found that CVD risk factors did not differ between married men and those who had never married. We found here, that Japanese married men had fewer CVD risk factors and less clustering of multiple risk factors than those who had never married.…”

“…Current smoking rates, blood pressure, total cholesterol and plasma glucose were higher in Group N, than in Group M. Group N had more of 4 CVD risk factors than the Group M. The difference in risk factor clustering between Groups M and N was more evident among men who lived with others than among those who lived alone. Many Western reports have described the relationship between marital status and all-cause mortality 1-6, 11, 12) , CVD mortality 1,2,4,5) or CVD risk factors [6][7][8][9][10] . Johnson et al examined the effect of marital status on mortality in a cohort of 281,460 men and women aged 45 yr and older in the United States.…”

“…Many reports have described the relationship between socioeconomic factors including marital status with mortality 1-6, 11, 12) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors [6][7][8][9][10] in Western countries. Most have found that total and CVD mortality is higher among those who never married than in those who had married 1-5, 11, 12) .…”