Shift work, occupational noise and physical workload with ensuing development of blood pressure and their joint effect on the risk of coronary heart disease

Shift work and cardiovascular disease – pathways from circadian stress to morbidity

“…Studies have reported similar levels of blood pressure in shift and day workers (58,59,85,104,108), while in some studies the former have had significantly higher blood pressure levels than day workers (60,109). When changes in blood pressure levels are considered, a fairly similar picture emerges: some longitudinal studies have suggested that rotating shift work is a risk factor for an increase in blood pressure (110,111), while others have found no effect of shift work on blood pressure increment (56,112,113).…”

“…In addition, whether shift work can increase the risk of hypertension needs to clarifed in additional follow-up studies. If shift workers, however, develop higher systolic blood pressure levels than day workers, it entails a high CHD risk (113). In the future, the role of treatment of hypertension should also be better taken into account.…”

The interplay between physical activity at work and during leisure time – risk of ischemic heart disease and all-cause mortality in middle-aged Caucasian men

“…The idea that individuals with high physical work demands should abstain from physical activity during leisure time has been supported by reports showing an increased risk of high systolic blood pressure (23), cardiovascular disease (17)(18)(19), and premature mortality (20,21) among these workers. These excess risks have previously been attributed to a prolonged intravascular turbulence and reduced wall shear stress (18), inducing inflammatory processes in the arterial walls leading to atherosclerosis (24).…”

Physical demands at work, physical fitness, and 30-year ischaemic heart disease and all-cause mortality in the Copenhagen Male Study

“…Two long-term cohort studies from Finland (1,12) reported that, in contrast to energy expenditure during leisure-time physical activity, high energy consumption at work may have detrimental effects on cardiovascular health even when controlling for the level of physical activity during leisure time and other well-known risk factors for IHD. To our knowledge, no previous study, apart from that of Krause and colleagues (1), has concomitantly taken into account information on physical activity during leisure time and used an objective measure of physical fitness when studying the association of occupational physical work demands with risk of IHD.…”