title: Does working while ill trigger serious coronary events? The Whitehall II study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Working while ill has been found to predict coronary heart disease. We tested if this association was due to triggering.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a nested case-control study in an occupational cohort to examine sickness absences during a 2-year period immediately before the first coronary event for 133 cases and 928 matched controls without a history of coronary events. Working while ill was defined as no absence despite being unhealthy (suboptimal self-rated health or psychological distress).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The odds of a coronary event were not higher for cases who worked while ill than for correspondingly unhealthy controls who took >0 to 14 days of absence per year (OR = 0.62; 95% CI = 0.28 to 1.38). These results were little affected by multiple adjustments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found no evidence that working while ill acts as a short-term trigger for coronary events.
authors.affiliation: Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. hugo.westerlund@stress.su.se
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Westerlund
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kivimaki
authors.forename: Jane E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ferrie
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marmot
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Shipley
authors.forename: Jussi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vahtera
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Head
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018582:Sick Leave; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D017132:Workplace