The contribution of job characteristics to socioeconomic inequalities in incidence of myocardial infarction

Abstract

The current study estimated the previous termcontribution of job characteristics to socioeconomic inequalitiesnext term in previous termincidence of myocardial infarctionnext term (MI) during a 12-year follow-up period. Data were from the working population (aged 25–64 years) in the Netherlands longitudinal GLOBE study (N = 5757). Self-reported information was available from baseline measurement (in 1991) for education, occupation, previous termjobnext term demand, previous termjobnext term control, fear of becoming unemployed, adverse physical working conditions, and smoking and alcohol use. Information on hospital admissions for MI among study participants was available until 2003, and was linked to baseline data via record linkage. Cox regression analyses were performed to estimate the hazard of MI in different previous termsocioeconomicnext term groups before and after adjustment for previous termjob characteristicsnext term and health-related behaviours. Lower educated and manual workers had a higher risk of MI during follow-up, after adjusting for age, sex and marital status than higher educated and non-manual workers, respectively. After adjustment for occupation, the lowest educated still had an elevated risk of MI. After adjustment for education, no significant association of occupation with MI was observed. previous termJobnext term control and adverse physical working conditions were not significantly associated with MI after adjustment for previous termsocioeconomicnext term position. These results suggest that the reduction of the previous termsocioeconomicnext term position–MI association after adjustment for the two specific previous termjob characteristicsnext term reflect the effect of other unobserved factors closely related to both previous termsocioeconomicnext term position and previous termjob characteristics.next term The results of this study point toward education as being the stronger predictor of hospital admitted MI, compared to occupational position and previous termjob characteristics,next term in the Dutch working population