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High pressure at work 'may increase heart disease risk'

06 May 2010 Breaking News

High levels of pressure at work may increase women's risk of developing heart disease, suggests a new study.

Work stress is of particular relevance to advisers dealing with income protection, where mental illness accounts for a relatively large proportion of claims.

The Danish Nurse Cohort Study, published in the journal Occupational and Environment Medicine, found that participants who reported work pressure to be much too high were 35% more likely to have developed heart disease than those who described the pressure as suitable.

Over 12,000 Danish nurses aged 45-64 were involved in the 15 year study, which was led by researchers at Glostrup University Hospital in Denmark. They were asked to self-report the extent to which they felt under pressure at work in addition to other potential risk factors such as their family history of cardiac disease, diabetes, body mass index, smoking history, alcohol intake and exercise habits. About 60% of the nurses reported work pressure to be much too high or a little too high.

During the course of the study (1993-2008) 580 participants were hospitalised with ischaemic heart disease (IHD). The association between work pressure and IHD was strongest and deemed only significant among the younger nurses (aged under 51).

While other studies have suggested that high pressure at work may be a risk factor for poor cardiac health, this is one of the few that has demonstrated the effect on women.

"Stress, as a response to work or other pressures, can be subjective," said Phil Brown, underwriting and claims director at Zurich. "Different people will have different responses to work pressures and whilst underwriters will always look closely at traditionally pressured jobs eg money traders and any associated warning signs such as stress it would be wrong to assume all people in pressured work environments, male or female, will exhibit the same responses.

"A librarian working in a sleepy suburb may have a worse reaction to only modest levels of work pressure than a money trader does to significant levels of work pressure. At the same time the underwriter needs to also consider any other likely predisposition to coronary heart disease for example, perhaps a poor family history, smoking, raised blood pressure.

"Work stress can lead to both mortality risk and morbidity risk and is of particular importance when considering income protection plans, where a significant cause of claim can be mental illness eg anxiety, stress, depression."

June Davison, cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Feeling under pressure at work means stressed employees may pick up some unhealthy bad habits and add to their risk of developing heart problems.

"Pressurised workers may reach for cigarettes, snack foods and alcohol to make themselves feel better."

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the UK, causing more than one in three of all deaths (around 200,000 at year). There are around 2.5 million people living with heart disease in the UK and one in five men and one in seven women will die from it.

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