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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Myrna Manners, Kathleen Robinson, Peggy Sung
Phone: (212) 821-0560
E-mail: pes2001@mail.med.cornell.edu
JOB STRAIN LINKED TO HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, HEART DISEASE
RISK
New York, NY (November 23, 1998) -- Those
who complain that "this job is killing me"
now have additional scientific evidence to back them up. People with
highly demanding jobs that
allow them little latitude for making decisions have higher blood pressure
and are at greater risk
of heart disease than workers who do not experience such "job
strain."
The good news is that the damage isn't irreversible:
Those whose jobs become less
demanding or provide more decision latitude over time experience decreases
in blood pressure.
The findings provide new evidence that job
strain is a risk factor in the development of
hypertension, say Dr. Peter Schnall and his colleagues in the
November-December issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. This research is being
conducted at Weill Medical College of Cornell
University and SUNY - Stony Brook under the leadership of Drs. Thomas
Pickering and Joseph
Schwartz.
The research team recruited 285 New York City men who
worked in a variety of skilled
and unskilled jobs. The men completed a questionnaire assessing their
freedom to make
decisions on the job and the extent of time-pressure demands the job put on
them. They also
wore a device that recorded their blood pressures at 15-minute intervals
over a 24-hour period.
The measurements were repeated in 195 of the men three years
later.
At the initial evaluation and three years later, men who said
they had high-strain jobs had
significantly higher blood pressure readings both at work and at home than
their low-strain
counterparts. Men who remained in high-strain jobs over the three years had
much higher blood
pressures (10 mm Hg systolic and 6 mm Hg diastolic) than those who remained
in low-strain jobs.
Interestingly, men who were initially in
high-strain jobs but moved to low-strain positions
saw their blood pressure readings fall over time, the authors report. In
fact, their follow-up blood
pressure readings were quite similar to those of men who had never been in
a high-strain job.
This decrease of 5/3 mm Hg in systolic/diastolic ambulatory blood pressure
is larger than the
observed treatment effect on blood pressures of weight-reduction
interventions reported in four
major clinical trials. This finding suggests that the removal of job strain
could result in a significant
reduction in blood pressure.
"The role of stress in causing high
blood pressure has long been suspected, but
convincing evidence has been lacking," Dr. Pickering and his colleagues
say. Although the
Cornell Work Site Blood Pressure Study is, to date, the largest
longitudinal study of job strain and
ambulatory blood pressure, the researchers state that given that this is
the first study of its kind
to be conducted in the U.S., further follow-up and replication are
desirable.
Lead author Dr. Peter Schnall, a former Cornell faculty
member who is currently Director
of the Center for Social Epidemiology in Santa Monica, California, said,
"Evidence now exists that
the organization of work is one of several risk factors that contribute to
the development of
hypertension. Our findings suggest that redesigning the organization of
work so as to avoid
excessive demands and to allow working people adequate control over their
work process may
prevent the development of hypertension and even reduce blood pressure in
some people."
The research was and continues to be supported by grants from the
National Heart, Lung
and Blood Institute.'
Contact
Persons
Thomas G. Pickering M.D., D.Phil.
Hypertension Center, Starr 4
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
1300 York Ave.
New York, NY 10021
(212) 746-2149
tpicker@mail.med.cornell.edu
Peter L. Schnall M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Center for Social Epidemiology
1528 6th St., Suite 202
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 319-6595
mailto:pschnall@workhealth.org
Joseph E. Schwartz Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry
SUNY - Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794-8790
(516) 632-8839
(212) 746-2166
jschwartz@mail.psychiatry.sunysb.edu
© 1999 New York Presbyterian Hospital
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
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