Mannen die vinden dat ze op hun werk onheus worden bejegend en daar niets over zeggen maken vijfmaal meer kans om een hartaanval te krijgen dat mannen die hun frustraties omtrent hun werksituatie wel kunnen uiten. Dat blijkt uit een Zweeds onderzoek van het Instituut voor Stressonderzoek van de universiteit van Stockholm, dat in het Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health werd gepubliceerd. Zij volgden tussen 1992 en 2003 elf jaar lang zo'n 2.755 werknemers die nog nooit een hartaanval hadden gehad.

Toen de studie beëindigd werd hadden 47 deelnemers ofwel een hartaanval gehad of waren ze overleden ten gevolge van een hartaandoening. De meesten onder hen werden omschreven als mannen die hun lot zwijgzaam ondergingen en hun frustraties ten gevolge van de unfaire behandeling op hun werk niet ter sprake konden brengen.

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23 Nov 2009

SINGAPORE, Nov 24 (Reuters Life!) - Men who bottle up their anger at being unfairly treated at work are up to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack, or even die from one, than those who let their frustration show, a Swedish study has found.

The study by the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University followed 2,755 employed men who had not suffered any heart attacks from 1992 to 2003.

At the end of the study, 47 participants had either suffered an attack, or died from heart disease, and many of those had been found to be "covertly coping" with unfair treatment at work.

"After adjustment for age, socioeconomic factors, risk behaviours, job strain and biological risk factors at baseline, there was a close-response relationship between covert coping and the risk of incident myocardial infarction or cardiac death," the study's authors wrote.

Covert coping was listed as "letting thing pass without saying anything" and "going away" despite feelings of being hard done by colleagues or bosses.

Men who often used these coping techniques had a two to fivefold higher risk of developing heart disease than those who were more confrontational at work, the study showed.

The researchers said they could not answer the question of what might be a particularly healthy coping strategy at work, but listed open coping behaviour when experiencing unfair treatment or facing a conflict as "protesting directly", "talking to the person right away", "yelling at the person right away" or "speaking to the person later when things have calmed down".

The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. (Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Alex Richardson)