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High job strain decreases life expectancy among white-collar men but not women

19 March 2012 Suomen Akatemia (Academy of Finland)

- High job strain increased the risk of mortality among white-collar men
with 50% during the 28-year follow-up. Low job demand and control increased the
risk of mortality among blue-collar men, says Dr. Mikaela von Bonsdorff from
the University of Jyväskylä.

Work defined by high job demand and also high control, a so-called ‘active job’, decreased the risk of mortality in white-collar women, the Finnish study published in BMJ Open found.

- Women in ‘active jobs’ are usually the most highly educated, and within that group the early mortality rate is lower compared to less-educated women, which might partly explain the finding. However, the result might also indicate that job strain has a different effect on health among men and women, say Dr. von Bonsdorff.

In 1981, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health launched this follow-up on nearly 6,000 public sector employees working in white-collar and blue-collar professions. Register-based mortality data was linked to the dataset for the entire follow-up time.

• Full bibliographic informationvon Bonsdorff MB, Seitsamo J, von Bonsdorff ME, Ilmarinen J, Nygård CH, Rantanen T.
  Job strain among blue-collar and white-collar employees as a determinant of total mortality: A 28-year population-based follow-up. BMJ Open 2012;2:e000860.