A stressful job is associated with a bigger
waistline, according to a new study of employees at a downsized company
in upstate New York.
Workers
with higher job stress were fatter than employees with less stressful
positions. The stressed employees had a body mass index (BMI) that was
about one unit heavier on average than that of their relaxed co-workers.
BMI is a measure of height and weight that estimates body fat. For
5-foot, 10-inch person, one BMI unit is equal to seven pounds.
The findings are
important in a time of widespread lay-offs, said Isabel Diana Fernandez,
a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Rochester School of
Medicine and lead author of the study. In the study, workers left behind
at the downsized company often complained of more stress and more
responsibilities.
"I think the message is that we have to take care of
the employees who've remained," Fernandez said.
How stress
makes us fat
Work stress has long been associated with cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression, among other chronic health conditions.
Work stress has long been associated with cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression, among other chronic health conditions.
Fernandez and her team
wanted to investigate the combined effects of chronic job stress and
short-term stress like the fear of unemployment. As part of a larger
workplace health program, the researchers measured the BMIs of 2,782
employees, mostly white, middle-aged men with college educations. These
employees had all kept their jobs through rounds of layoffs.
|
The employees answered
questions about their diets, job stress and leisure-time activities.
Short-term stress was estimated by measuring job insecurity, or the fear
workers felt over the threat of more layoffs. Chronic stress was
measured by the amount of control workers felt they had over their jobs
and how heavy their responsibilities were.
The results showed no association between short-term
stress and weight, but chronic stress was a different story. Workers
with more responsibilities and less control had BMIs one point higher
than their co-workers with low responsibility and high control, even
after adjustments for known obesity risk factors like age, race and
income.
However,
the effect
of stress on BMI disappeared when researchers factored in
leisure-time physical activity and television watching. Using the Godin
score, a measurement of how many times a person has done more than 10
minutes of exercise per day, the researchers found that for every drop
in exercise frequency, BMI increased by 0.02 units.
Television was even worse
for the waistline
: People who watched TV for two to three hours a day had BMIs that
were 2.37 units higher than people who watched TV for fewer than two
hours. That's the equivalent of just over 16 pounds for the average
5-foot, 10-inch man, or just over 14 pounds for an average 5-foot,
4-inch woman.
The
importance of job environment
Although the findings represent a moment in time and can't show causation, they suggest that stress at work makes people likely to fall back on unhealthy behaviors at home, Fernandez said.
Although the findings represent a moment in time and can't show causation, they suggest that stress at work makes people likely to fall back on unhealthy behaviors at home, Fernandez said.
"They go back home, and they only want to veg out,"
she said.
The
findings, published in the January issue of the Journal of Occupational
and Environmental Medicine, are important for employers as well as
employees, Fernandez said.
Click for related content
She was co-author on
another study in the same issue of that journal that found overweight
and obese employees used more medical services and were absent more than
lower-weight employees. The result cost employers an additional $201 a
year per overweight employee and $644 a year per obese employee. The
findings suggest that it is in employers' best interest to create a
healthy environment, Fernandez said.
"People spend many, many hours at work, and in those
hours we either move or don't move, or eat and have catered meetings,"
Fernandez said. "There are a lot of opportunities in the worksite to
promote healthy behaviors."
© 2010
LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.