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Job Strain Linked to Increase in Risk for PAD Hospitalization

TUESDAY, April 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Job strain is associated with a 1.41-fold increase in the average risk for peripheral artery disease (PAD) hospitalization, according to a study published online April 28 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Katriina Heikkilä, Ph.D., from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom, and colleagues ascertained PAD records from national hospitalization data and examined the association of job strain with PAD in each of 11 prospective cohort studies. The study-specific estimates were combined in random-effects meta-analyses.

The researchers found that 23.4 percent of the 139,132 participants with no previous hospitalization for PAD reported job strain at baseline. A total of 667 individuals had a hospital record of PAD during 1,718,132 person-years at risk (mean follow-up, 12.8 years; 3.88 per 10,000 person-years). The average risk for hospitalization with PAD was increased 1.41-fold in association with job strain. There was moderate heterogeneity in the study-specific estimates (I², 26.9 percent). The estimates were consistent for both sexes, across the socioeconomic hierarchy, and by baseline smoking status, despite variations in magnitude. The direction or magnitude of the observed associations was not altered by additional adjustment for baseline diabetes mellitus.

"Physicians in occupational health and primary care need to recognize work‐related stress as a risk factor for many cardiovascular disease outcomes, including peripheral artery disease," the authors write.

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