Heartless Bosses Create Coronary-Prone Workers -

Heartless Bosses Create Coronary-Prone Workers - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today: "Heartless Bosses Create Coronary-Prone Workers

By Neil Osterweil, Senior Associate Editor, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
October 25, 2005
Also covered by: Forbes, MSNBC
Ask patients about workplace stress, and help them with stress-reduction strategies when they feel beset by unreasonable demands or unfair supervisors.

Review
HELSINKI, Oct. 24 - Harried employees who complain that their work is killing them might just be right.
Or to put it in a more positive light, workers who feel that they are treated justly on the job have a significantly lower risk for coronary artery disease.
Investigators here and in London came to this conclusion after studying the heart health of 6,442 British men who work for Her Majesty's civil service.
'This is the first study, to our knowledge, that demonstrates that justice at work may protect against coronary heart disease,' Mika Kivimaki, Ph.D., of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and colleagues at University College London Medical School reported in the Oct. 24 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
'In men who perceived a high level of justice, the risk of incident coronary heart disease was 30% lower than among those who perceived a low or an intermediate level of justice,' they added.
When workers believe that their supervisors listen to them, consider their viewpoints, involve them in decision-making and generally treat them fairly, they tend to have lower levels of stress, negative emotions, and absenteeism, the investigators noted.
'There are plausible mech"