Health and Well-Being in the Workplace: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature

Felton & Cole (1963) estimate that all cardiovascular diseases accounted for 12 per cent of the time lost by the ‘working population’ in the US, for a total economic loss of about $4 billion in a single year. A report (1969) by the Department of Health and Social Security in the UK shows, as Aldridge (1970) indicates, that the sum of incapacity for men suffering from mental, psychoneurotic and personality disorders, nervousness, debility and migraine headache accounted for 22·8 million work days lost in 1968 alone (second only to bronchitis in the league table of illness and lost working days). Coronary heart disease and mental ill health together, therefore, represent a serious cost for industry both in human and financial terms.

Occupational sources of stress: a review of the literature relating to coronary heart disease and mental ill health

Clinical coronary heart disease (CHD) occurred in 257 subjects during eight to nine years of follow-up (average, 8 1/2 years) in a prospective study of 39- to 59-year-old employed men. Incidence of CHD was significantly associated with parental CHD history, reported diabetes, schooling, smoking habits, overt behavior pattern, blood pressure, and serum levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, and β-lipoproteins. The type A behavior pattern was strongly related to the CHD incidence, and this association could not be explained by association of behavior pattern with any single predictive risk factor or with any combination of them. ( JAMA 233:872-877, 1975)

https://jamanetwork.com/HttpHandlers/ArticlePdfHandler.ashx?journal=jama&articleId=337636&pdfFileName=jama_233_8_016.pdf

Coronary heart disease in the Western collaborative group study. A follow-up experience of two years.

Psychological predictors of heart disease: a quantitative review.

The hypothesis that triglyceride is a cause of coronary heart disease, although unconfirmed and never universally accepted, has nonetheless strongly influenced the practice of preventive m...

Epidemiology as a Guide to Clinical Decisions. The Association Between Triglyceride and Coronary Heart Disease

This study was designed to (1) compare "predictive" abilities of different parameters and their interrelationships in the future incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and (2) define the profile of coronary-prone males through retrospective analysis of prospectively obtained data. Comprehensive studies of overt behavior pattern, blood lipids and coagulation, body measurements, socioeconomic factors, individual habits, and cardiovascular status were obtained annually since 1960 in 3,524 men, aged 39 to 59 years. Manifest CHD was found in 113 of 3,411 "well" men, but this was unknown to the investigators at the time of the study. The men with CHD exhibited higher serum beta/alpha lipoprotein ratios and 80 of them had been adjudged in "blind" assessments to exhibit an overt behavior pattern (type A) previously found associated with occurrence of CHD in middle-aged men.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/1163684/jama_189_1_004.pdf

Nicholas T. Werthessen

Papers

A Predictive Study of Coronary Heart Disease: The Western Collaborative Group Study