Increasing work stress linked to higher risk of diabetes
Workers who experience an increase in stress on the job over time may be more likely to develop diabetes than their co-workers who don’t, a study suggests.
Researchers examined data on 3,730 petroleum industry workers in China. At the start of the study, none of the workers had diabetes. After 12 years of follow-up, workers who experienced increasing stressful tasks on the job were 57 per cent more likely to develop diabetes, the study team reports in Diabetes Care.
At the same time, workers who experienced a decline in coping resources like social support from friends and family or time for recreational activities were 68 per cent more likely to develop diabetes. “Major changes in work may affect our risk of developing diabetes,” said Mika Kivimaki, a researcher at University College London in the UK. “It is therefore important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight, even during turbulent periods at work,” Kivimaki said by email. In the study, Yulong Lian of Xinjiang Medical University and colleagues didn’t report exactly how many workers developed diabetes. Lian didn’t respond to requests for comment. Worldwide, nearly one in 10 adults had diabetes in 2014, and the disease will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030, according to WHO.
Most of these people have type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity and aging and happens when the body can’t properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy. Left untreated, diabetes can lead to nerve damage, amputations, blindness, heart disease and strokes.
Physicians have long recommended exercise, weight loss and a healthy diet to control blood pressure and minimise complications of the disease. Stress reduction is also advised because, whether it’s caused on the job or not, stress may also make diabetes worse by directly contributing to a spike in blood sugar or by leading to unhealthy lifestyle habits causing complications. The study looked at several forms of job-related stress and found that what researchers described as “task stressors” — such as feeling overloaded with work or unclear about expectations or responsibilities of the job, and the strains of physical labour — were the biggest contributors to the risk of developing diabetes.