Pressure threatens female health
Thursday May 6th, 2010
Young women with high pressure jobs face a greater risk of developing heart disease than their older counterparts, researchers said today.
The findings suggest that the youngest workers may find it harder to adjust to the stresses of a tough work-place than more experienced staff.
British experts today said the findings could reflect the way young workers tend to turn to habits like smoking and drinking to relieve pressure.
The 15-year study into the health of 12,116 Danish nurses showed that those under the age of 51 were at significant risk of heart disease.
The research team, who have published their findings in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, looked at work pressure and the degrees of personal influence in the workplace on the health of their hearts.
The nurses were all aged between 45 and 64 in 1993 when they were first signed up to the research and their health was tracked for 15 years, using hospital records.
By 2008, 580 nurses had been admitted to hospital with heart disease, which included 369 cases of angina and 138 heart attacks.
Those who said their work pressures were too high were 25 per cent more likely to have heart disease than those who said their work pressures were manageable and appropriate.
But those who felt work pressures were "much too high" were almost 50 per cent more likely to have heart disease.
Researchers said that after taking account of risk factors for heart disease, such as smoking and lifestyle, the risk fell to 35 per cent, which is still significant.
When the findings were analysed by age, only nurses under the age of 51 were at significant risk of heart disease.
"It seems as if the effect of work pressure has a greater impact on younger nurses," say the authors. "This is in agreement with findings from previous studies looking at age specific effects in both men and women."
"The lower risk among the older nurses may be due to other risk factors that become relatively more important with increasing age. Furthermore, vulnerable individuals may have [already] left work," they add.
June Davison, a nurse with the British Heart Foundation, said: "Pressurised workers may reach for cigarettes, snack foods and alcohol to make themselves feel better.
"If you feel under pressure you should try and tackle it in a positive way and get active during work hours.
"Using the stairs and walking some of the way to work could help act as a stress buster and boost heart health too."
Psychosocial work environment and risk of ischaemic heart disease in women: the Danish Nurse Cohort Study Occup Environ Med 2010; 67: 318-22
Tags: Europe | General Health | Heart Health | UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology
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