Job Stress Ups Healthcare Costs

Job-related stress leads to more doctor visits, reveal Concordia University economists.

They have found that increased job stress causes workers to increasingly seek help from health professionals for physical, mental and emotional ailments linked to job stress.

"These results show that people in medium-to-high stress jobs visit family doctors and specialists more often than workers with low job stress," said first author Sunday Azagba, a PhD candidate in the Concordia Department of Economics.

To reach their conclusions, the economists crunched nationally representative data from the Canadian National Population Health Survey (NPHS).

"We believe an increasing number of workers are using medical services to cope with job stress," co-author Mesbah Sharaf, a PhD candidate in the Concordia Department of Economics said.

"There is medical evidence that stress can adversely affect an individual's immune system, thereby increasing the risk of disease.

"Numerous studies have linked stress to back pain, colorectal cancer, infectious disease, heart problems, headaches and diabetes.

"Job stress may also heighten risky behaviours such as smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, discourage healthy behaviours such as physical activity, proper diet and increase consumption of fatty and sweet foods," Sharaf added.

The study has been published in BMC Public Health.

Source: ANI