Stress at Work not Linked to Cancer: Study

For those who find their jobs stressful and fear that big trouble awaits them, you can actually take a sigh of relief, as stressful job does not activate the development of cancer, reports bmj.com.

The study, led by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London, clearly revealed that work-related stress does not boost the risk of the four common types of cancer i.e., breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer.

According to the study, around 90 percent of the cancers occur due to environmental exposure. Some of the harmful exposures we all are familiar with are UV radiation and tobacco smoke. And it has been found that a psychological factor such as stress does not cause cancer.

In order to prove the hypothesis, researchers from the IPD-Work Consortium, led by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London, conducted an analysis of 12 studies that involved 116,000 subjects from Denmark, U.K., the Netherlands, France, Finland and Sweden. The subjects belonged to the age group 17 to 70.

To measure the stress levels at work, the researchers used a validated measure 'job strain'. High job strain referred to high demands and low control, while active jobs defined high demands and high control; passive job referred to low demands and low control and low strain jobs referred to low demands and high control.

They even collected data on cancer events from the national cancer or death registries and hospitalization registries. They considered factors such as age, sex, smoking and alcohol intake, BMI and socioeconomic position.

On analyzing the subjects, they noticed that 5 percent of the participants developed some form of cancer in the average 12 year follow-up. But they could not trace a link between stressful jobs and cancer.

They conclude that work-related psychological factor cannot be a causal factor for cancer.