RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Multicohort study of change in job strain, poor mental health and incident cardiometabolic disease
JF Occupational and Environmental Medicine
JO Occup Environ Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP oemed-2018-105595
DO 10.1136/oemed-2018-105595
A1 Linda L Magnusson Hanson
A1 Naja Hulvej Rod
A1 Jussi Vahtera
A1 Paraskevi Peristera
A1 Jaana Pentti
A1 Reiner Rugulies
A1 Ida Elisabeth Huitfeldt Madsen
A1 Anthony D LaMontagne
A1 Allison Milner
A1 Theis Lange
A1 Sakari Suominen
A1 Sari Stenholm
A1 Tianwei Xu
A1 Mika Kivimäki
A1 Hugo Westerlund
YR 2019
UL http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2019/09/05/oemed-2018-105595.abstract
AB Objectives Several recent large-scale studies have indicated a prospective association between job strain and coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Job strain is also associated with poorer mental health, a risk factor for cardiometabolic disease. This study investigates the prospective relationships between change in job strain, poor mental health and cardiometabolic disease, and whether poor mental health is a potential mediator of the relationship between job strain and cardiometabolic disease.Methods We used data from five cohort studies from Australia, Finland, Sweden and UK, including 47 757 men and women. Data on job strain across two measurements 1–5 years apart (time 1 (T1)–time 2 (T2)) were used to define increase or decrease in job strain. Poor mental health (symptoms in the top 25% of the distribution of the scales) at T2 was considered a potential mediator in relation to incident cardiometabolic disease, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, following T2 for a mean of 5–18 years.Results An increase in job strain was associated with poor mental health (HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.38 to 1.76), and a decrease in job strain was associated with lower risk in women (HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.60–0.84). However, no clear association was observed between poor mental health and incident cardiometabolic disease (HR 1.08, 95% CI 0.96–1.23), nor between increase (HR 1.01, 95% CI 0.90–1.14) and decrease (HR 1.08, 95% CI 0.96–1.22) in job strain and cardiometabolic disease.Conclusions The results did not support that change in job strain is a risk factor for cardiometabolic disease and yielded no support for poor mental health as a mediator.