Paris, Oct 18: Dilbert, the cult cartoon character, may well be a prime candidate for a killer heart attack. Factors associated with the character like being stuck in a dead-end job with a crazed, dictatorial boss put him at risk. In a study published in Saturday’s issue of the weekly British Medical Journal (BMJ), those suffering stressful demands at work, poor rewards and scant career opportunities are believed to be twice as likely to die of heart disease. Mika Kivimaki, a psychologist at Helsinki University, headed a team of researchers, who monitored the health of over 800 employees at the Vamet Machine Tool Company in Jyvaskyla, Central Finland for an average of 25 years. The volunteers’ blood pressure, level of cholesterol and body fat were regularly recorded and questionnaires filled out about stress and sense of reward of the participants in their job. After adjusting figures for age and sex, it was found that those associated with high job strain, a combination of high demands at work and low levels of control over their jobs faced 2.2 times higher risk of dying of cardiovascular disease than counterparts with low job stress.


Highly-stressed employees had significantly higher levels of blood cholesterol and a tendency to gain weight over the years.


The authors concluded that high job strain and effort-reward imbalance were likely to increase the risk of cardiovascular mortality.



Bureau Report