Objective This study aimed to assess the fractions of cardiovascular diseases and depression attributable to five psychosocial work exposures in Europe (35 countries), for all countries together and each country separately.

Methods We used the data of the sample of 35,571 employees from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey to assess the prevalence of exposure to job strain, effort-reward imbalance, job insecurity, long working hours, and workplace bullying. The relative risks were extracted from published literature reviews and/or meta-analyses. The outcomes included: coronary/ischemic heart diseases (CHD), stroke, atrial fibrillation, peripheral artery disease, venous thromboembolism, and depression. We calculated individual attributable fractions (AF) for each exposure and overall AFs for all studied exposures together.

Results The highest significant AF was found for job strain and depression (17%). The other AFs for depression were also significant: job insecurity (9%), bullying (7%), and effort-reward imbalance (6%). Almost all AFs for cardiovascular diseases were significant but lower than 5% (one exception was the fraction of peripheral artery disease attributable to job strain, 11%). There were differences in the AFs for depression between countries. Differences in the AFs were also observed between countries and between genders for long working hours. The overall AFs related to the five studied exposures together were found to be 17%-35% for depression and 5%-11% for CHD.

Conclusion The fractions attributable to psychosocial work exposures were substantial, especially for depression. Preventive measures oriented towards the psychosocial work environment may contribute to reduce the burden of diseases attributable to these exposures.