Job Stress Elevates Blood Pressure
Chantal Guimont, Chantal Brisson, Gilles R. Dagenais, Alain Milot, Jocelyne Moisan, Nathalie Laflamme, and Caty Blanchette
American Journal of Public Health, August 2006
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Study findings by Laval University researcher Chantal Guimont and her colleagues confirm what some office managers, senior management officials and other white-collar workers have suspected for years: Working in highly stressful jobs can increase your blood pressure. The study, "Effects of Job Strain on Blood Pressure: A Prospective Study of Male and Female White-Collar Workers," appears in the August 2006 American Journal of Public Health.
As some prior studies assessing the impact of job strain on blood pressure have yielded conflicting results, Guimont and her colleagues looked at the issue again in a study of 6,719 men and women white-collar workers, aged 18 to 65 years, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Participants completed a questionnaire about their physical activity level, smoking history and other potential items that might increase their risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, as well as about their family history of the two conditions, and characteristics of their work and social life. They also had several measurements of their blood pressure.
At follow-up, 7.5 years later, men who were exposed to high levels of job strain throughout the course of the study had blood pressures that were nearly two points above that of men with no exposure to job strain – an increase comparable to that observed among men with sedentary behavior. In particular, men with the most job strain were 33 percent more likely to experience an increase in blood pressure.
What's more, men with a high level of job stress at follow-up, who initially reported no such stress, had similarly increased blood pressures, the researchers report; those with high levels of job strain at follow-up only were 40 percent more likely to have increased blood pressures.