Job pressure ups women's heart disease risk

In this study, researchers from Denmark assessed the impact of work pressure and degree of personal influence in the workplace on the heart health of more than 12,000 nurses. The nurses were all aged between 45 and 64 in 1993, when they were questioned about daily work pressures and about how much they felt they had control over their work. Their health was then tracked for 15 years using hospital records.

The results showed that nurses who said their work pressures were a little too high were 25 percent more likely to develop heart disease as those who said work pressures were manageable and appropriate. Those who felt work stress was much too high were 35 percent more likely to have heart disease after other risk factors like smoking and lifestyle were taken into account.But when the findings were analyzed by age they showed that nurses under age 51 were at significant risk of heart disease.

“This study adds to the previous body of evidence suggesting harmful effects of excessive psychological demands at work on cardiac health, but is one among very few that demonstrates the effect among women,” the researchers, from Glostrup University Hospital in Denmark said.

 June Davison, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said feeling pressurised at work meant employees may pick up unhealthy habits and add to their risk of having heart problems.