“This job is killing me!” Maybe. A 19 year observational study of healthy males at a ferry allow plant revealed a powerful relationship between job strain and blood pressure. There’s nothing like the ongoing threat and reality of massive lay-offs to increase job strain and pressure. Whereas economic and employment declines may be beyond one’s control, one’s reactions are not. The study also revealed the positive influence of maturity and coping mechanisms when the retained men faced the same strain and similar threat 5 years later. Read more.
Kjeldsen SE, Knudsen K, Ekrem G, Fure TO, Movinckel P, Erikssen JE. Is there an association between severe job strain, transient rise in blood pressure and increased mortality? Blood Press. 2006;15(2):93-100. PubMed PMID: 16754272. – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16754272