(Press-News.org) Among patients who return to work after a heart attack, those who work more than 55 hours per week, compared to those working an average full-time job of 35-40 hours a week, increase their odds of having a second heart attack by about twofold, according to a prospective cohort study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Data from the International Labour Office estimates 1 in 5 workers worldwide work over 48 hours per week. Previous studies have found an association between working long hours and increased risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. This is the first study of its kind to examine the effect of long working hours and the risk of a second cardiovascular event among patients who return to work after a first heart attack.
"Looking at long working hours and job stressors was helpful in determining how hostile a working environment was and how much potential stress a participant could be under," said Xavier Trudel, PhD, a researcher at The CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center in Québec, and the lead author on the study. "Once both factors are introduced, there's a noticeable increase in the risk of recurrent coronary heart disease events."
The study recruited 967 patients from 30 hospitals across Quebec, Canada, between 1995 and 1997. Patients had a history of heart attack, were younger than 60 years of age, held a paying job within the year prior to their heart attack and planned to return to work. Follow-up interviews and questionnaires were conducted across the next six years to assess hospital readmission rates, coronary heart disease events and lifestyle risk factors, physical or chemical exposures at work (smoking, chemicals, pollution, noise, excessive heat or cold, and physical exertion), work environment and total weekly working hours.
Based on their total weekly working hours, individual participants were placed into four categories: 1) part-time (21-34 hours/week), 2) full-time (35-40 hours/week), 3) low overtime (41-54 hours/week) and 4) medium/high overtime (>55 hours/week).
Using an assessment questionnaire, the researchers measured levels of stressful work through job strain. If a participant had high psychological demands at work (quantity of work, time constraints and level of intellectual effort required) and low decision control (opportunities for learning, autonomy and participation in the decision-making process), they were classified as having job strain. In addition, social support in and out of work were measured.
During the study period, 21.5% of participants had a second heart attack. Working long hours was associated with an about twofold increase in the risk of a second heart attack. Men were more likely to be working medium/high overtime hours (10.7% of men vs. 1.9% of women), as well as younger workers. In addition, those with worse lifestyle risk factors (smoking, alcohol intake, physical inactivity), and who worked a more stressful job were also more likely to be in the medium/high overtime category.
"To reduce the risk of coronary heart disease recurrence, secondary prevention interventions aimed at reducing the number of working hours should be evaluated in future studies," Trudel said. "Long working hours should be assessed as part of early and subsequent routine clinical follow-up to improve the prognosis of post-heart attack patients."
In an accompanying editorial comment, Jian Li, MD, PhD, a professor in the Fielding School of Public Health and School of Nursing at University of California, Los Angeles, said the study results have important implications for clinical practice, such as more comprehensive measures for secondary prevention for heart attack patients.
"The study provides a new piece of research evidence that work-related factors play an important role in coronary heart disease prognosis," Li said. "Occupational health services are urgently needed to be incorporated into secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease."
This study has several limitations, including a small sample size of women participants and an assessment of long working hours at baseline only. Future studies, with larger sample size, should look at the effect of cumulative exposure.
INFORMATION:
The following JACC link to the paper is available for posting in news articles and will be live after embargo: https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.02.012
The American College of Cardiology envisions a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and outcomes. As the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team, the mission of the College and its 54,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC bestows credentials upon cardiovascular professionals who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College also provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research through its world-renowned JACC Journals, operates national registries to measure and improve care, and offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions. For more, visit acc.org.
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology ranks among the top cardiovascular journals in the world for its scientific impact. JACC is the flagship for a family of journals--JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, JACC: Heart Failure, JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, JACC: Basic to Translational Science, JACC: Case Reports, JACC: CardioOncology and JACC: Asia--that prides themselves in publishing the top peer-reviewed research on all aspects of cardiovascular disease. Learn more at END
Firearm injuries are a leading and preventable cause of injury and death among youth - responsible for an estimated 5,000 deaths and 22,000 non-fatal injury hospital visits each year in American kids. And while hospital systems are poised to tackle this issue using a public health approach, prevention efforts and policies may be differentially effective. A new study led by researchers at Children's National Hospital, finds that sociodemographic factors related to intent of injury by firearm may be useful in guiding policy and informing tailored interventions for the prevention of firearm injuries in at-risk youth.
"We sought to explore differences by injury intent in a ...
DALLAS - March. 29, 2021 - With NASA preparing to send humans to Mars in the 2030s, researchers are studying the physical effects of spending long periods in space. Now a new study by scientists at UT Southwestern shows that the heart of an astronaut who spent nearly a year aboard the International Space Station shrank, even with regular exercise, although it continued to function well.
The results were comparable with what the researchers found in a long-distance swimmer who spent nearly half a year trying to cross the Pacific Ocean.
The study, published today in Circulation, reports that astronaut Scott Kelly, now retired, lost an average of 0.74 grams - about three-tenths of an ounce - per week in the mass ...
Although the development of secondary cancerous growths, called metastasis, is the primary cause of death in most cancers, the cellular changes that drive it are poorly understood. In a new study, published in Genome Biology, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a new modeling approach to better understand how tumors become aggressive.
"Researchers have identified several cellular pathways that change when a tumor becomes aggressive. However, it is difficult to understand how they affect the tumor," said Steven Offer, an assistant professor of molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics at Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. "We wanted to develop a simple system that can model how cancer cells form ...
FINDINGS
A new study by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found using percutaneous image guided needle based thermal ablation -- the precise application of extreme heat or cold to a tumor using sophisticated ultrasound, CT or MRI in a single outpatient session -- is a safe and effective adjunctive therapy for the local control of metastatic gynecologic cancers throughout lungs, liver, soft tissues in the abdomen and pelvis and bones in patients with advanced localized cancers unresponsive to systemic therapy.
Nearly 96% of the patients in the study achieved a complete tumor response over a median follow up period of 10 months. The overall survival rate was 37.5 months and the progression-free ...
BOSTON - In the last 20 years, Black adults living in rural areas of the United States have experienced high mortality rates due to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke compared to white adults. In a research letter written by colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published in the END ...
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which leads to a loss of central vision, is the most frequent cause of blindness in adults 50 years of age or older, affecting an estimated 196 million people worldwide. There is no cure, though treatment can slow the onset and preserve some vision.
Recently, however, researchers at the University of Rochester have made an important breakthrough in the quest for an AMD cure. Their first three-dimensional (3D) lab model mimics the part of the human retina affected in macular degeneration.
Their model combines stem cell-derived ...
Communication between the brain's auditory and reward circuits is the reason why humans find music rewarding, according to new research published in JNeurosci.
Despite no obvious biological benefits, humans love music. Neuroimaging studies highlight similarities between how the brain's reward circuits process music and other rewards like food, money, and alcohol. Yet neuroimaging studies are correlational by nature. In a new study, Mas-Herrero et al. sought to nail down the causal role of this circuitry by using non-invasive brain stimulation.
A group of pop music fans listened ...
A team led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian has used advanced technology and analytics to map, at single-cell resolution, the cellular landscape of diseased lung tissue in severe COVID-19 and other infectious lung diseases.
In the study, published online March 29 in Nature, the researchers imaged autopsied lung tissue in a way that simultaneously highlighted dozens of molecular markers on cells. Analyzing these data using novel analytical tools revealed new insights into the causes of damage in these lung illnesses and a rich data resource for further research.
"COVID-19 is a complex disease, and we still don't understand exactly what it does to a lot of organs, but with this study we were able to develop ...
Researchers at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, have developed a novel far red light-emitting luciferin-luciferase system that is more efficient than those available commercially. An article on the subject is published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
The study was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP via the Thematic Project "Arthropod bioluminescence: biological diversity in Brazilian biomes, biochemical origin, structural/functional evolution of luciferases, molecular differentiation of lanterns, biotechnological, environmental and educational applications", for which the principal ...
ANN ARBOR--In a two-year study that could help guide educators developing the post-pandemic new normal, student groups at the University of Michigan assigned to make video presentations showed more creativity and risk-taking than groups making conventional in-person presentations.
"Given the importance of project-based learning, our study provides a way to turn virtual limitations into an advantage," said Fei Wen, U-M associate professor of chemical engineering. "We can enhance the student experience and learning outcomes."
Higher education, along with society at large, anticipates a shift in the balance between ...
