Stressful work 'increases heart risk for women'

While it is already known that high-flying jobs are linked to the condition, previous studies have largely focused on men.

In the latest study, women who said their work pressures were a little too high were 25 per cent more likely to suffer heart disease than those who said their job was manageable.

But those who said their work pressures were much too high were 35 per cent more likely to suffer after lifestyle factors, such as whether they smoked, were taken into account.

The research, published in the journal Occupational And Environmental Medicine, looked at the impact of work pressure on heart disease risk among 12,116 nurses taking part in the Danish Nurse Cohort Study.

The degree to which the women felt they had control over their jobs was also analysed by researchers.

The nurses were all aged between 45 and 64 at the start of the study in 1993, and were followed for a period of 15 years.

By 2008, 580 women had been admitted to hospital with heart disease, of which 138 had suffered a heart attack, 369 had angina and 73 had another type of heart disease.

Poor job control in the workplace did not influence heart disease risk and, when the rest of the results were looked at by age, the influence was strongest and only significant for women under 51 at the start of the study.

In a separate analysis on the same group, researchers found that women who felt themselves to be moderately pressurised in the five years up to 1998 were 60 per cent more likely to have heart disease than those who were not pressured at work.

Meanwhile, women who said they faced excessive pressures at work were almost twice as likely to have heart disease.

The researchers, from Glostrup University Hospital in Denmark, said older women may have less of a risk of heart disease for several reasons, including if they have already left work.

They concluded: "This study adds to the previous body of evidence suggesting harmful effects of excessive psychological demands at work on cardiac health, but is one among very few that demonstrates the effect among women.

"Additional work should be carried out to identify factors contributing to the perceived high work pressure."