Powerless, Stressful Jobs Boost Heart Attacks

Having a high-stress job with little control over your work may increase your risk of a heart attack, a new study finds. The study assessed job stress for nearly 200,000 workers with no history of heart disease. People filled our surveys about their job demands, workload, time pressures and their freedom to make decisions. Then researchers kept track of them for an average of 7½ years. In that time, nearly 2,400 people had their first non-fatal heart attack. Heart attacks were 23% more common among people who had demanding jobs but little role in decision making. Researchers cautioned that the cause might not be the work stress itself. People could cope with stress partly by doing things that are bad for their health, such as smoking more. In any case, the effect of job stress was less than other risks, such as lack of exercise. The journal Lancet published the study.