Stress & lack of recognition at work can cause coronary heart disease: Université Laval research

Approximately one in five coronary heart diseases in white-collar workers is caused by working in a job characterized by job strain and an imbalance between effort and recognition, a researcher from Université Laval has found.

More specifically, the study authors calculated that 18 per cent of coronary heart disease cases were attributable to job strain; 3 per cent were due to a lack of recognition for effort; and 19.5 per cent were due to a combined exposure to these two stressors.

“There is more than 30 years of epidemiological evidence on the harmful effects of psychosocial stressors at work on cardiovascular health,” noted the study’s lead author, Mathilde Lavigne-Robichaud, whose doctoral work led to this publication.

The researchers followed a group of more than 6,000 white-collar workers for 15 years. They used data from PROspective Québec, a long-term study examining psychosocial stressors at work that can affect the health of white-collar workers in 19 Quebec organizations. A subsample of 6,295 individuals free of coronary heart disease at the time of recruitment was used for the analyses, the authors explained in a press release.

The study authors believe their results “are consistent with current understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms linking psychosocial factors at work and coronary heart disease.”

During the course of a working life, they explain, exposure to chronic psychosocial stressors at work, in addition to traditional cardiovascular risk factors, “may promote the onset and progression of coronary atherosclerosis.”

“Acute activation of the sympathetic nervous system can precipitate cardiovascular events by promoting atherosclerotic plaque rupture and platelet activation, driven by increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, and coronary vasoconstriction,” they explain.

The study authors also claim to have been able, through various verifications, to establish a causal link between job strain, an effort-reward imbalance, and cardiovascular disease.

Fortunately, Lavigne-Robichaud emphasized, these are “modifiable” risk factors. Reducing psychological demands, increasing employee participation in decision-making, or providing more opportunities for professional development would therefore be effective strategies to reduce these psychosocial stressors and produce beneficial effects on blood pressure and hypertension.

“If workers were instead placed in situations where psychological demands were lower, where decision-making latitude was greater, and also with appropriate recognition at work, (…) we would be able to potentially avoid a significant proportion of coronary heart disease,” she said.

Especially, she concluded, since “we can assume that the benefit of addressing psychosocial stressors at work goes beyond cardiovascular prevention; it is also about the overall health of workers.”

The findings of this study were published in JACC: Advances, a scientific journal of the American College of Cardiology.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews