Is the association between job strain and carotid intima-media thickness attributable to preemployment environmental and dispositional factors? The prospective Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Cohort Study

¹ Department of Psychology/University of Helsinki, Finland
² University College London, United Kingdom
³ National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Finland
⁴ Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland
⁶ Department of Medicine/University of Turku, Finland
⁷ Department of Clinical Physiology/University of Turku, Finland

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: taina.hintsa{at}helsinki.fi.

Accepted 9 January 2008

	Abstract

Objectives. Most previous studies of job strain and cardiovascular risk have been limited to adult data. It remains unclear whether this association might be explained by factors present already before entering work life. We examined whether preemployment family factors and participants’ own dispositional factors contribute to the relationship between job strain and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) among male employees.

Methods. The sample was 494 men from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Parental socioeconomic position and parental life dissatisfaction were assessed at age 9 to 21 years and components of type A behavior (Hunter-Wolf) were assessed at age 12 to 24 before the participants had entered labor market. Job strain, education and CIMT were assessed at age 27 to 39 years when all the participants were employed.

Results. There was an association between higher job strain and increased CIMT in adulthood 0.59 mm [95% CI 0.42-0.76] which was only little affected on adjustment for parental socioeconomic position and parental life dissatisfaction as well as participants' education. However, the job strain/CIMT relationship attenuated 17% to non-significant after taking into account the effect of participants’ type A behavior components.

Conclusions. In this contemporary cohort of men, lack of leadership (a type A behavior component) contributed to the association between job strain and carotid intima-media thickness 15 years later whereas preemployment family factors had only a modest effect on this association.

Keywords: carotid intima-media thickness, job strain, preemployment factors, type A behavior components