Life-Course Exposure to Job Strain and Ambulatory
Blood Pressure in Men
Paul A. Landsbergis (1,2), Peter L. Schnall (3), Thomas
G. Pickering (2), Katherine Warren (2) and Joseph E. Schwartz
(4)
1 Department of Community and Preventive Medicine,
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.
2 Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai
School of Medicine, New York, NY.
3 Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University
of California, Irvine, CA.
4 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, State University
of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY.
This 1985-1995 study was designed to assess the association between
blood pressure (measured by using an ambulatory monitor) and history
of exposure to job strain. Items from the Job Content Questionnaire
were completed by 213 employed men, aged 30-60 years at entry
into the Work Site Blood Pressure Study in New York City, New
York, for each previous job they had held. The systolic blood
pressure of men employed for 25 years who were exposed to job
strain for 50% of their work life was 4.8 mmHg (95% confidence
interval: -3.7, 13.4) higher at work and 7.9 mmHg (95% confidence
interval: 0.8, 15.0) higher at home than that of men with no past
exposure, independent of current exposure. Evidence was inconsistent
for the hypothesis of rapid induction of/recovery from the effects
of job strain on blood pressure, and there was little effect of
past job strain on diastolic blood pressure. These findings provide
some support for the hypothesis of an effect of cumulative burden
of exposure to job strain on systolic blood pressure.
Key Words: blood pressure; blood pressure monitoring, ambulatory;
employment; hypertension; social class; stress; work
Abbreviations: AmBP, ambulatory blood pressure; JCQ, Job Content
Questionnaire; WHQ, Work History Questionnaire.
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