Work stress and financial worries could increase your risk of stroke by up to 30 per cent, recent research has discovered.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Open, was conducted by researchers in Sweden.
Study author Annika Rosengren, a professor of medicine at the University of Gothenburg, said:
“It’s not known exactly what causes the elevated risk of cardiovascular disease [CVD] among the severely stressed people.
“But many different processes in the body, such as atherosclerosis and blood clotting, may be affected by stress.
“If we want to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease globally, we need to consider stress as another modifiable risk factor.”
Participants in the study were asked questions about perceived stress within the past year.
The condition was defined as feeling nervous, irritable or anxious because of factors at work or at home, being in financial difficulties or having experienced difficult events and challenging times in their lives.
A total of 118,706 individuals were surveyed from 21 countries, five of which were low-income, twelve middle-income and four high-income countries.
The participants were men and women aged between 50 and 70 with an average age of 50 at the start of the study.
Of the participants, 7.3 per cent had experienced severe stress, 18.4 per cent moderate stress, 29.4 per cent low stress and 44 per cent had experienced none.
Those under severe stress were slightly younger, more frequently characterised by risk factors such as smoking or abdominal obesity and more often in high-income countries.
The participants were followed until March 2021, with a median follow up period of 10 years.
A total of 5,934 cardiovascular events in the form of myocardial infarction, stroke, or heart failure were recorded during this time.
Following adjustments to differences in risk factors, in highly stressed individuals, the risk of a stroke was increased by 30 per cent and the risk of a heart attack was increased by 24 per cent.
Professor Salim Yusuf is lead investigator of the PURE study.
The expert at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Canada, said:
“The impact of stress on cardiovascular disease has been long recognized and approaches to reducing stress is potentially promising in reducing CVD.”
