Could Job Stress Raise Your Risk Of Stroke?

The results emerged after analysis of earlier studies and researchers point out that those in stressful jobs tend to eat and drink less healthily and smoke more.

Job factors included time pressure, mental demands and coordination burdens. If high-strain jobs did not exist, strokes among working women would fall by 6.5%, the study authors calculated.

They looked at four different job categories divided up according to how much demand was placed on the employee, and how much control they had in their work environment.

The risk was 33% higher among women in high-strain jobs compared to those in low-strain jobs.

Conversely, architects and scientists were found to be the least stressed, thought to be a result of having a few “ownership” of the role and feeling empowered. High stress jobs, which are high demand and low control, are found in the service industry and include waitresses and nursing aides, the researchers said.

The analysis found that those with high-stress jobs had a 22 per cent higher risk of stroke than those with low-stress jobs. Overall, these workers had a 22 percent higher risk of stroke than those with low-stress jobs, and a 58 percent higher risk of ischemic stroke – the most common type of stroke, caused by the blockage of blood flow.

Actually, there’s another stressful job out there that’s also leaving lives on the line – but not the ones you’d expect. Then they categori participants’ work into four groups: low demand, low control; low demand, high control; high demand, low control; and high demand, high control.

“It is possible that high stress jobs lead to more unhealthy behaviours, such as poor eating habits, smoking and a lack of exercise”, explained senior study author Dingli Xu from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China.

Research from the past 20 years has already made the connection between high-stress jobs and heart disease, even after controlling for social class, wrote Dr. Jennifer Majersik of University of Utah Health Care in an editorial that accompanies Xu’s study.

Participants who fell in other work categories (“active” jobs like doctor or teacher, which are a combination of high demand and high control work, for instance) did not have any increased risk of stroke.

Stress in the workplace is no joke – just ask a brain surgeon/firefighter.

However, this propensity could be combated, by making lifestyle changes, such as quitting cigarettes, following a healthy diet or keeping physically active.

While strategies to mitigate stress are increasingly popular in the tech industry, little is done to assist service workers, who are the most exposed to these dangers.

Moreover, they are unable to control their work environment, enjoy few work benefits and have little possibility of professional advancement. Jobs on the low end of the spectrum for both psychological demand and control are considered “passive”, such as manual labor gigs.