Work Stress and Death from Overwork

摘要

cqvip:The Japanese have a word for death from overwork –“Karoshi” and in China it is called as “guolaosi”, it is an occupational sudden death. The major medical causes of Karoshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress including subarachnoidal hemorrhage (18.4%), cerebral hemorrhage (17.2%), cerebral thrombosis or infraction (6.8%), myocardial infraction (9.8%), heart failure (18.7%), and other causes (29.1%). Victims of Karashi are seldom compensated under the Japanese workers’ compensation system; nearly 1000 victims of death from work in Japan applied for workers’ compensation each year and just have 5 to 10% granted approval. In 2002, there were 160 persons recognized as "death from over work” by Ministry of Labor in Japan. Estimated by scholars Etsuro Totsuka and Toshio Ueyanangi in their essay published in 1991 that more than 10,000 workers die from work-related cardiovascular diseases in Japan each year. From the report, the ages between 40 to 60 occupied 70% and male workers occupied 94%. At present, “death from over work” is no longer unique to Japan. Following by economic competition and development, the workers in China are also suffering high work stress and the cases of death from overwork are getting more and more. In North America and Western Europe, a number of studies have demonstrated a significant relationship between high work stress (high production demands and low levels of control and social support) and cardiovascular disease.