The Impact of Stress on Metabolic Syndrome

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Chronic stress at work and the metabolic syndrome: prospective study, by T. Chandola and colleagues. BMJ 332:521–525, 2006.

What is the problem and what is known about it so far?

Work-related stress can lead to a variety of health problems, including coronary heart disease (disease of the heart and blood vessels).

Some research suggests that stress at work could be related to metabolic syndrome (a cluster of symptoms that includes high blood pressure, an inability of the body to handle glucose properly, a large waist size, and high levels of fats and cholesterol in the blood).

One problem with previous studies that examined stress and its ill health effects is that researchers did not keep track of information about how long the work stress lasted, which may have led to confusing results.

Why did the researchers do this particular study?

The researchers wanted to study the link between work-related stress and metabolic syndrome, particularly to see if more stress leads to a worse case of metabolic syndrome.

Who was studied?

The study included 10,308 men and women, 35 to 55 years old, who worked as civil servants in London.

How was the study done?

Researchers interviewed the men and women to measure each person's level of work-related stress. Participants also had a physical exam and blood drawn for lab tests to check their health and to see if they had metabolic syndrome.

What did the researchers find?

Work-related stress appears to be linked to metabolic syndrome. Researchers noted a "dose-response relationship" between the two; the more stress a person experienced at work, the more likely he or she had metabolic syndrome. People who work under chronic stress were more than twice as likely to get metabolic syndrome than people who had less stress at work.

What were the limitations of the study?

Researchers couldn't measure the number of new cases of metabolic syndrome that developed because they didn't have information on all of the syndrome's components at the beginning of the study. There could be other reasons for the finding, such as that obese people who are more likely to suffer metabolic syndrome are also more likely to feel isolation and work-related stress more severely. Few women reported chronic work-related stress, which could affect the results on a larger scale.

What are the implications of the study?

The study suggests a potentially important link between a person's environment and physical health.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

How Stress Affects Diabetes

Is the Metabolic Syndrome Really a Syndrome?

101 Tips for Coping With Diabetes