Stress and heart disease link strengthens

摘要

STRESSED white-collar workers are more likely to suffer coronary heart disease according to new evidence from one of the UK's longest-running health studies. Workers with elevated work-stress levels were more likely to suffer heart attacks, angina and metabolic syndrome (a collection of symptoms, including high blood pressure, which increase the likelihood of a person suffering heart problems). The study, reported in the European Heart Journal (http://eurheartj. oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/ ehm584v1), draws on the so-called Whitehall Study of the health of more than 10,000 civil servants which began in the 1980s. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s participants had their levels of the stress hormone cortisol measured and were asked about work stress, using measures such as workload, degree of autonomy and management support (or lack of it), which are now familiar components of the HSE's stress management standards.