Tuesday Aug 14, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Being jobless is bad. But a study published on Aug 8, 2012 in International Journal of Cardiology suggests that even worrying about job loss or job insecurity can boost risks of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or commonly known as heart attack, heart failure, and cardiac death.
The study led by K.D. Laszlo of Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and colleagues showed that job insecurity was correlated with 50, 69, and 62 percent increased risks of cardiac death and non-fatal acute myocardial infarction, total mortality, and heart failure, respectively.
Stress has been linked to increased risk of heart disease. The current study was intended to determine whether job insecurity is associated with mortality and recurrent events after a first acute myocardial infarction.
The study involved 676 people who had had a non-fatal acute myocardial infarction and enrolled in the Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Program. All participants were paid workers or professionals and aged younger than 65 years.
Shortly after their acute myocardial infarction, patients were asked to complete a questionnaire about job insecurity, demographic, work-related, clinical and lifestyle factors and receive a clinical exam three months after discharge from the hospital. They were then followed for 8.5 years for mortality and cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and heart failure.
In addition to the association between job insecurity and increased risks of cardiac death and non-fatal myocardial infarction, all cause death and heart failure, job insecurity was also found associated with 57 percent increased risk of cardiac death and 46 percent increased risk of stroke.
All the associations already excluded the potential effects of other factors including previous morbidity, demographic and work related factors.
The association between job insecurity and the combined risk of cardiac death and non-fatal acute myocardial infarction remained strong even after adjustment for potential mediators such as sleep problems, health behaviour, hypertension, blood lipids, serum glucose, inflammatory and coagulation factors.
The researchers concluded "Our results suggest that job insecurity is an adverse prognostic factor in patients with a first AMI. Future studies are needed to confirm this finding and to determine the mechanisms underlying the observed relationship."
A person's state of mind has much to do with his heart health. But one should also pay attention to his diet because if he does not take care of his diet, he can be at a high risk for cardiovascular disease or events such as myocardial infarction or hear failure.
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