Work-Related Psychosocial Hazards and Arteriosclerosis

Abstract

SummaryThe association of psychosocial stress with cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still inconclusive. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between arteriosclerosis and various work-related conditions among medical employees with various job titles.A total of 576 medical employees of a regional hospital in Taiwan with a mean age of 43 years and female gender dominance (85%) were enrolled. Arteriosclerosis was evaluated by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). Workrelated conditions included job demands, job control, social support, shift work, work hours, sleep duration, and mental health. The crude relationship between each of the selected covariates and baPWV was indicated by Spearman correlation coefficients. A multiple linear regression model was further employed to estimate the adjusted associations of selected covariates with arteriosclerosis.The mean baPWV of participants was 11.4 ± 2.2 m/s, with the value for males being significantly higher than that for females. The baPWV was associated with gender, age, medical profession, work hours, work type, depression, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, fasting glucose, and cholesterol. After being fully adjusted by these factors, only sleep duration of less than 6 hours and weekly work hours longer than 60 hours were significantly associated with increased risk of arteriosclerosis. The conditions of job demands, job control, social support, shift work, and depression showed no significant association with baPWV.Longer work hours and shorter sleep durations were associated with an increased risk of arteriosclerosis. These findings should make it easier for the employer or government to stipulate rational work hours in order to avoid the development of cardiovascular disease among their employees. (Int Heart J 2015; 56: 644-650) Key words: Pulse wave velocity, Cardiovascular disease, Stress C ardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in most industrialized nations. Multiple risk factors predispose people to the progression of CVD. By controlling these risk factors, the incidence and mortality rate of CVD has been reduced in several industrialized countries in recent decades. 1-3)Among these risk factors, psychosocial stress is noted as a widespread phenomenon and plague of modern society. One large-scale and world-wide case control study revealed psychosocial stress was correlated to a 2.67-fold increased risk of acute myocardial infarction, which is a more dangerous condition than that of hypertension and diabetes. 4) Many work-related psychosocial stressors are associated with CVD. Karosak, et al commenced pioneering work and developed the dominant demand-control model (DCM) approximately 3 decades ago to study work-related stress.5) Work characteristics of low decision latitude and high work load will result in high job strain. Job strain will increase the risk of incident coronary heart disease by 23% compared to no job strain in large pooled data. 6)Recently, long work hours, 7-10) shift work, 1...

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

“…By contrast, in societies with collectivistic values, such as Asia, high control would be perceived as a distressing lack of structure [ 69 ]. Therefore, it is not surprising to see that job control did not show any effect on arterial stiffness [ 15 , 18 ], or even that harmful effect was observed [ 14 ] in some Asian studies. In addition, the Job Demand–Control model was applied to measure work stress in most of the epidemiological studies on work stress and arterial stiffness/atherosclerosis mentioned above.…”

“…Increasingly, new findings also suggest arterial stiffness is tightly linked to cardiovascular disease [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. To the best of our knowledge, six cross-sectional studies examined the potential associations between work stress and arterial stiffness, four from Japan [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ], one from Taiwan [ 18 ] and one from The Netherlands [ 19 ]. Four of them found significant positive associations, i.e., higher work stress was related to increased arterial stiffness [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 19 ] whereas one study reported null findings [ 18 ]; and another study discovered significant negative associations [ 14 ].…”

Determinants of the Change in Arterial Stiffness in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients

“…We chose a baPWV because of its technical simplicity only requires attaching an easy-to-use blood pressure cuff onto foot and arms and accumulating evidence for usefulness. 11,13) Most previous studies employed the femoral and heart (hfPWV) 18) or carotid (cfPWV), a well-established index of central arterial stiffness. [19][20][21] The cfPWV measures stiffness from the aorta to iliofemoral axes, while baPWV reflects one in not only central elastic arteries but also peripheral muscular arteries.…”

“…The PWV was calculated according to the previous literature. 13,15) Patients with an ankle-brachial index (ABI) < 0.9 were excluded from further evaluations. Measurement of cIMT: cIMT was measured by B-mode ultrasonography using a 5 MHz linear transducer (a10 color Doppler system, Aloka).…”

“…First, baPWV can be performed easily and routinely as it only requires wrapping the four extremities with blood pressure cuffs. 13) Second, there is ample reference data for baPWV from previous epidemiological studies. 14) Third, baPWV is better for evaluating the rigidity of muscular-type arteries in addition to that of central elastic arteries.…”