By David Liu, PHD
Tuesday Nov 20, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Unemployment may boost risk of heart attack. But a stressful job can be bad for blood pressure in men, according to a new study in Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environmental Health.
A. Sherwood of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina and colleagues conducted the study and found men, but not women with high blood pressure who had job strain can't lower nighttime blood pressure as easily as those who had no job strain.
In other words, men with high blood pressure experienced blunted nighttime blood pressure dipping at the time they faced job strain. Blunted nighttime blood pressure dipping is associated with cardiovascular risk, according to the researchers.
For the study, 122 blue- and white collar workers with 72 men and 50 women were surveyed using a Job Content Questionnaire to measure job psychological demands, job control, and social support. Job stress was estimated by the ratio of job demands to job control. Nighttime blood pressure dipping was measured during 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring on three workdays.
The researchers reported "men with high job strain had a 5.4 mm Hg higher sleep systolic blood pressure (P=0.03) and 3.5 mm Hg higher sleep pulse pressure (P=0.02) compared to men with low job strain."
They also found "Men with high job strain had a smaller fall in systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure from awake to sleep state than those with low job strain (P<0.05)."
After adjustment for ethnicity, body mass index, anxiety and depression, smoking status, and alcohol drinking, job strain was found to be an independent determinant of systolic blood pressure dipping in men.
Unlike men, women with high blood pressure were not subject to the influence from job strain.
The researchers concluded " High job strain is associated with a blunting of the normal diurnal variation in blood pressure and pulse pressure, which may contribute to the relationship between job strain and cardiovascular disease."
Comments