You might consider thinking about keeping your stressful job, because a new study suggests that it is killing you in the long run. Highly-stressed workers were found to have a 33 percent higher risk of suffering from stroke compared to those who have less stressful jobs.
Researchers at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China looked at the data of nearly 140,000 workers, with ages 18 to 75 and categorized their jobs to either active or passive and high-strain or low-strain based on psychological demand and job control. They also examined the medical history of the participants for three to 17 years.
Active jobs, such as those of doctors, teachers, and engineers, have high psychological demand and high control, while passive workers, such as janitors and manual laborers, have low psychological demand and low control. Some of the high-strain jobs are those of waitresses, nursing aides, and other service-industry occupations. Low-strain jobs, on the other hand, are those of the scientists and architects, The Los Angeles Times reported.
So which jobs are the most stressful and have the highest risk of stroke? The findings suggest that the overall risk of those with high-strain jobs have a 33 percent higher risk of stroke compared to those with low-strain jobs. The researchers didn't see any significant risk in the active and passive workers, according to Reuters.
The researchers added that the stress levels of people tend to increase when they have little control of what they do, given strict deadlines and need to do multitasking. The researchers clarified that their study found a link, not a cause-and-effect of stressful jobs and increased stroke risk.
"We think further studies are needed to evaluate whether job stress directly increases the risk of stroke or whether other concurrent risk factors are responsible for the increased risk observed," Dr. Yuli Huang, study author from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, told LiveScience.
The study was published in the Oct. 14 issue of the journal Neurology.
