Occupational stress and cardiovascular disease

Links between occupational stress and cardiovascular risk have long been asserted. This paper reviews the evidence from the simple notion of occupational level and type as a risk through to the more theoretically sophisticated models of occupational stress as a determinant of cardiovascular risk and disease. It maps measures of occupational stress against the three related end points of coronary risk profiles, hypertension and clinical cardiovascular disease. Taken broadly, the evidence is supportive of postulated links. The persuasiveness of the evidence now points to intervention studies in the workplace as the next major focus of research.