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Is work stress shortening your life?





A stressful workplace could take years off your expected life span – it could be shortening your life. A new study by researchers at Harvard and Stanford Universities think so, but it depends on ethnic background, age, level of education, and gender (Washington Post, October 28, 2015).

The study was conducted in America. Previous research mapping life expectancy showed that in some parts of America people live as many as 33 years longer on average than people from other areas. One study showed that men and women with less than 12 years of education had life expectancies that were the same as those of the 1950s and 60s – in other words, no improvement to their life expectancy due to economic gains over the past few decades. Reasons include differences in access to health care, exposure to air and water pollution, nutrition consumption, as well as the levels of smoking, drug use, and exercise.

The new study looks at the ways a workplace influences life expectancy. The researchers divided people into 18 different groups by race, education, and gender. They looked at 10 different workplace factors including unemployment, redundancies and layoffs, the absence of health insurance, shift work, long working hours, job insecurity, and work-family conflict. They compared the data with annual mortality rates and life expectancies.

The results showed that people with less education are much more likely to have jobs with more unhealthy workplace practices, which in turn reduced their life span. People with the highest education levels were less affected by workplace stress than people with the least levels of education. Blacks and Hispanics lost more years of life due to their work than white people in every education and gender category, although women were less affected (except for educated Hispanic women who lost significantly more of their life span due to work than educated Hispanic men).

For 17 or more years of education, people generally lost half to one year of their life span. For less than 12 years of education, people generally lost 1.5 to 2.5 years of their life span.

The factors that affected life span most, across all groups, were (in order): unemployment and lay offs, and lack of health insurance. Low job control was the next biggest influence for both men and women, followed by job insecurity for men and shift work for women.

The researchers maintain that society needs to focus more on creating healthier work environments, especially for workers with less education. This could include, say the researchers, better policies regarding long work hours, shift work, health insurance, paid time off, and job security.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/28/researchers-have-determined-how-many-years-of-life-you-lose-to-a-stressful-job/
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