Workplace Report October 2005

Health & safety news

Job stress link to strokes and heart attacks

Young men with high work demands and little control over their job situation show signs of early atherosclerosis - a condition where substances build up in the inner lining of an artery - according to new research.

Mirka Hintsanen of Helsinki University said: "The effects of job strain on early atherosclerosis were mostly explained by high demands rather than by low control." Researchers found increased thickness of the lining of the carotid arteries, which supply blood to the head.