Abstract

Background: Stress at work is an increasing common feature of modern life. Job stress has adverse health effects on cardiovascular system. This study was the first one which has used effort-reward imbalance model (ERI) to measure job stress in an Iranian group of workers to assess adverse effects of job stress on cardiovascular risk factors. The aim of this study was to examine relationship between job stress and cardiovascular risk factors including high blood pressure, overweight, smoking, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, high level of triglyceride and low density lipoprotein and low level of high density lipoprotein. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 109 randomly selected employees of Urmia petrochemical company. A self-administrated questionnaire included demographic characteristics, smoking status, work stress, and negative affectivity was used to collect data. Blood sample was also taken in order to determine biological risk factors. Multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate the effect of job stress on cardiovascular risk factors. Findings: Overall prevalence of ERI and high overcommitement were 54.1 and 26.6 respectively. There was a significant relationship between ERI and age (P = 0.05), number of children (P < 0.024) and education level (P = 0.005). According to ERI index, workers with stress have shown an excess risk of 43 for hypertension, 14 for being smoker, 55 for diabetes, 106 for high triglyceride, 21 for high cholesterol, 41 for low density lipoprotein, and 191 for low level of high density lipoprotein. Exploring other components of job stress, i.e. overcommitement and considering low level of overcommitement as a reference category, there was an increasing risk in high blood pressure, overweight, diabetes, high triglyceride and low density lipoprotein. Conclusion: This study showed an increase in cardiovascular risk factors by increasing in job stress. However, these evidences were not statistically significant. It is recommended to use prospective cohort studies to examine effects of job stress on cardiovascular system.