Occupational stress and cardiovascular risk factors in high-ranking government officials and office workers.
BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular diseases are among the most important sources of mortality and morbidity, and have a high disease burden. There are some major well-known risk factors, which contribute to the development of these diseases. Occupational stress is caused due to imbalance between job demands and individual's ability, and it has been implicated as an etiology for cardiovascular diseases.


OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to evaluate the cardiovascular risk factors and different dimensions of occupational stress in high-ranking government officials, comparing an age and sex-matched group of office workers with them.


METHODS
We invited 90 high-ranking officials who managed the main governmental offices in a city, and 90 age and sex-matched office workers. The subjects were required to fill the occupational role questionnaire (Osipow) which evaluated their personal and medical history as well as occupational stress. Then, we performed physical examination and laboratory tests to check for cardiovascular risk factors. Finally, the frequency of cardiovascular risk factors and occupational stress of two groups were compared.


RESULTS
High-ranking officials in our study had less work experience in their current jobs and smoked fewer pack-years of cigarette, but they had higher waist and hip circumference, higher triglyceride level, more stress from role overload and responsibility, and higher total stress score. Our group of office workers had more occupational stress because of role ambiguity and insufficiency, but their overall job stress was less than officials.


CONCLUSIONS
The officials have higher scores in some dimensions of occupational stress and higher overall stress score. Some cardiovascular risk factors were also more frequent in managers.
Department of Occupational Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, IR Iran.
Seyyed Jalil
SJ
Mirmohammadi
Department of Occupational Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, IR Iran.
Mahmoud
M
Taheri
Department of Occupational Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, IR Iran.
Amir Houshang
AH
Mehrparvar
Department of Occupational Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, IR Iran.
Mohammad
M
Heydari
Department of Surgery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
Ali
A
Saadati Kanafi
Department of Occupational Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, IR Iran.
Mehrdad
M
Mostaghaci
Burnout, Professional; Cardiovascular Risk Factor; Managers