Stressed men at work 'have higher risk of cancer'

19th January 2017 – Men who spend much of their working life in stressful jobs may be storing up health problems in later life, a study suggests.

Canadian researchers found that a high work load and pressure to get results on time may increase the risk of several types of cancer.

However, experts say it's unlikely that stress causes cancer, and that other lifestyle factors prompted by stress may explain the increase in risk.

15 to 30 years of workplace stress

The study, published in Preventative Medicine, examined the prevalence of cancer among men in Montreal who considered themselves to have stressful jobs. In all, 3,103 cases were investigated, involving 11 different types of cancer between 1979 and 1985.

The individuals involved described in detail each job held during their working life, how often they found it stressful and why.

On average, the participants had held 4 jobs, with some holding more than a dozen.

Five types of cancer

The researchers found significant links to 5 cancers stemming from workplace stress. These are lung, colon, rectal, and stomach cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

These links were found in men who had been in stressful occupations for 15 to 30 years. No link was seen in men who had been in stressful jobs for less than 15 years.

Job insecurity, financial problems, dangerous work conditions, responsibilities, commission-based pay, a tough commute and conflicts with colleagues were all factors listed as contributing to stress.

The most stressful jobs listed were firefighter, industrial engineer, aerospace engineer, mechanic foreman, and vehicle and railway-equipment repair worker.

The authors write: "One of the biggest flaws in previous cancer studies is that none of them assessed work-related stress over a full working lifetime, making it impossible to determine how the duration of exposure to work-related stress affects cancer development.

"Our study shows the importance of measuring stress at different points in an individual's working life."

The researchers say that assessing whether job stress caused men to adopt unhealthy lifestyles was beyond the scope of their investigation. However, they noted that those who reported 30 years of work stress tended to drink more.

Booze, smoking and obesity

Emma Shields, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, says in a statement: "Many previous studies have shown that there’s no link between stress and the risk of cancer developing. Stressful situations might affect how much alcohol we drink, how much we eat, and whether we smoke – all things that strongly affect our cancer risk, but there’s no good evidence that stress itself directly causes cancer.

"There are lots of things we can do to reduce our cancer risk. Not smoking, cutting down on alcohol, and keeping a healthy weight can all add up to make a big difference."