Work-related stress can double risk of potentially deadly irregular heartbeat

Stress that results from work may increase the chances of developing a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm by a factor of two, according to a study. 
 
The studies identified that job stress as well as perceived job demands();

Inadequate reward is also considerably related with the development of atrial fibrillation. 
 
When it comes to the level of influence, the research among the office workers revealed that high job strain multiplied by low reward for effort demonstrated the highest index. 
 
Together, they increase the risk of having the irregular heartbeat condition referred to as AF or AFib by 97 per cent over workers not exposed to stress. 
 
According to the Journal of the American Heart Association findings, the cardiovascular disease risk of high job strain on its own was 83 per cent higher to AF. 
 
In contrast an effort-reward imbalance for example where efforts made are not rewarded by fair remuneration was in itself linked to a 44 per cent greater risk. 
 
Impact of job strain 
 
AF refers to atrial fibrillation which is considered to be the most prevalent type of arrhythmia – an irregular heartbeat. It can result to a stroke or heart failure or any other complications of cardiovascular nature. 
 
Around 1. About 4 million people in the UK are thought to be living with AF. 
 
This can develop at any age, though it is most often seen in adults over the age of forty; and it is more common in males as compared to females. 
 
Earlier studies have associated raised levels of job strain and effort-reward impairment at work with enhanced probability of CHD. 
 
However, Professor Xavier Trudel of the University of Colorado Denver and the senior author of the new study said that traditional work stress has been found to negatively affect AF, and the present study is the first to show how both forms of stress at work cause it. 
 
Prof Trudel, of Laval University in Quebec, Canada, said: Thus, according to the findings of the present analysis, occupation-related stressors may be the components that should be taken into account when designing prevention measures. 
 
“To enhance the health of employees and the organisations for which they work, aspects of psycho-social stressors need to be recognised and managed. 
 
Prof Trudel and his team carried out the analysis of the impact of job strain by measuring such aspects as high job demands, a high workload, and stringent time restrictions. 
 
Some of the variables that were considered included low control over work, decision-making and how work tasks are done. 
 
Another aspect measured was the effort-reward imbalance which is a condition where the employee puts a lot of effort at the workplace and the rewards which accrue to him or her such as wage, recognition or job security are perceived as low or inequitable to the efforts being made. 
 
‘There is need to conduct research on workplace interventions’ 
 
The two research groups reviewed the medical databases of greater than 5,900 white-collar working adults in Canada with follow-up data of eighteen years. 
 
The mean age of the participants at baseline was forty-five and at the end of the study in the year 2018 it was sixty-five. In the present study work stress was determined by self reported questionnaires. 
 
The assessment revealed 186 cases of new-onset AF, and out of these the participants’ responses revealed that 19% of the individuals with AF had high job strain, 25% perceived effort-reward imbalance and 10% of the patients were stressed on both forms. 
 
Over one-third of the participants had previous CHD/heart failure diagnoses in a Cox analysis and more than half in an age analysis. 
 
Prof Trudel said: “As part of future research directions, the ability of organizational interventions aimed at decreasing psycho-social stressors, which may also decrease the risk of AF in nursing personnel, should be examined. 
 
“In the context of our working environment our research team conducted an organisational intervention aimed at minimising psycho-social stress at place of work; it was statistically demonstrated that it had a positive impact on blood pressure. 
 
He added: Others examples of organisational changes that may be made during the intervention include, reduction of the rate of implementation of a huge project to avoid complicating the workload; flexitime; and meetings between the managers and the workers on day-to-day issues. 
 
The researchers stated that generalization of the findings may be a problem because all of the participants were white-collar workers which include managers and professional and office employees in Canada; thus the results may not be generalizable to other types of employee or to employee in other countries.