Workplace Pressure and Restraint Rocket Diabetes Risk

Feeling stressed at work? Relax for your health.

Scientists found that stressed employees are significantly more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. 

After analyzing prospective data from a population-based study, investigators from Helmholtz Zentrum München found that stress at work can led to a range of health conditions like Type 2 diabetes.

The latest study conducted by researchers Dr. Cornelia Huth and Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladwig found that employees who report feeling lots of pressure at work and having little control over the things they do at work were about 45 percent more likely than their less counterparts to develop type 2 diabetes.

The latest study involved more than 5,300 employed participants between the ages of 29 and 66 who took part in the population-based MONICA/KORA* cohort study.

Participants were monitored for an average of 13 years, and almost 300 of participants were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

They study revealed that job strain independently increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. The findings held true after accounting for other risk factors like obesity, age or gender.

Researchers said these findings are troubling as a fifth of participants reported suffering high mental stress at work. High levels of mental stress is different from "normal hob stress" and occurs when participants rate work demands as very high and freedom for activity or decision making as low.

"In view of the huge health implications of stress-related disorders, preventive measures to prevent common diseases such as diabetes should therefore also begin at this point," Ladwig said in a news release.

The study was published in the scientific journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

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