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.
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