Work-related stress has negative effects on more than just mental health, especially for men. Research has long shown that work strain can have a negative impact on workers’ mental and physical health, but new research shows it actually increases men’s risk of heart disease. There was found.
Work stressors such as heavy workloads, tight deadlines, and environments that rob workers of their autonomy can be severe enough to compromise workers’ heart health.
Putting effort into work without feeling like you’re being adequately rewarded, a predicament called “effort-reward imbalance,” also has serious negative effects on heart health.
“Effort-reward imbalance is when employees put in a lot of effort at work, but the rewards they receive in return, such as pay, recognition, or job security, are inadequate or inadequate compared to their efforts. It occurs when there is a perception of inequality,” said study lead author Mathilde Lavigne-Robichaud. doctoral candidate in population health at CHU de Québec Université Laval Research Center said in a statement.
Male workers who experienced work strain or an imbalance between effort and reward were 49% more likely to develop heart disease than men without these stressors. study The findings were published Tuesday in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Men who experienced both job hardships were twice as likely to suffer from heart disease compared to men who did not experience both stressors at the same time.
Work stress is comparable to obesity
Researchers found that the negative health effects of work strain and the imbalance between effort and reward at work are similar to the effects of obesity on the risk of coronary heart disease.
“Given the enormous amount of time people spend at work, understanding the relationship between work stressors and cardiovascular health is critical to public health and worker well-being,” Lavigne-Robichaud said. Ta. “Our research highlights the urgent need to proactively address stressful working conditions to create healthier working environments that benefit employees and employers.”
This study is one of the few to examine the combined effects of job strain and other undesirable job characteristics, such as low pay and little flexibility.
“Job strain refers to a work environment in which employees face a combination of high job demands and low job control,” she added.
Researchers followed more than 6,400 Canadian white-collar workers with an average age of 45 years without cardiovascular disease from 2000 to 2018. They measured the level of work strain and effort-reward imbalance compared to the incidence of heart disease. The results for women were inconclusive, the study found.
