Is your job giving you a heart attack? The International Commission of Occupational Health (ICOH) conference this week in Newport Beach, Calif., helps answer that question, and more. The UCI Center for Occupational and Environmental Health is hosting this conference, during which original research is being presented in the following areas: the changing nature of work; the relationship between working conditions, social class and social inequality as determinants of cardiovascular disease research; and the relationship between working conditions, social class and social inequality as determinants of cardiovascular disease risk.

This tipsheet highlights research with broad news appeal being presented at the conference. To see a complete list of abstracts, see: www.coeh.uci.edu/icoh/index.htm. To reach any of the researchers, call Dr. Peter Schnall at (310) 428-6652, or Tom Vasich at (949) 824-6455.

Noteworthy studies being presented at ICOH:

Working longer hours leads to higher hypertension rates in Americans
Previous studies in Japan have shown that people who work more than 40 hours a week have a higher rate of hypertension, the precursor to cardiovascular disease. Haiou Yang and colleagues with the UCI Center for Occupational and Environmental Health tested this idea with California workers between the ages of 18 and 64. They found that people who worked 50 hours a week or more were 13 percent more likely to report hypertension than people who work less and 40 hours a week. Abstract No. 106.

Job pressure raises blood pressure all day, all night
By monitoring blood pressure rates over a 24-hour period of 126 workers, Els Clays of the Department of Public Health in Belgium found that the high psychological demands o
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Contact: Tom Vasich
tmvasich@uci.edu
949-824-6455
University of California - Irvine
8-Mar-2005