Job insecurity and incident coronary heart disease: The Whitehall II prospective cohort study

ObjectiveThis study uses a prospective design to examine the association between self-reported job insecurity and incident coronary heart disease; an association which has been little investigated previously.MethodsParticipants were 4174 British civil servants (1236 women and 2938 men), aged 42 to 56 with self-reported data on job insecurity and free from coronary heart disease at baseline (1995-6). These participants were followed until 2002-4, an average of 8.6 years, for incident fatal coronary heart disease, clinically verified incident non-fatal myocardial infarction, or definite angina (a total of 168 events).ResultsCox proportional hazard models adjusted for socio-demographic characteristics showed job insecurity to be associated with a 1.42-fold (95% CI, 1.05-1.93) risk of incident coronary heart disease compared with secure employment. Adjustment for physiological and behavioral cardiovascular risk factors had little effect on this estimate; 1.38 (1.01-1.88).ConclusionThis study suggests that job insecurity may adversely affect coronary health.